Take Small Steps To Setting Patterns
Patterns dont take hold instantly. It takes time for a pattern to become a pattern or for an action to become a habit. Pretend you drink everyday , and you have a goal of completely becoming sober from drinking alcohol. Instead of quitting cold turkey and suddenly stop drinking, meanwhile putting yourself at risk for withdrawal, it is easier and more efficient to limit yourself to smaller drinking patterns. Setting small goals such as only allowing yourself one drink today with dinner rather than a drink with every meal makes it easier to follow and easier to track how well you are progressing in your goals, therefore motivating you to continue your journey.
Overcoming Addiction Without Rehab
Rehabilitation which is staying off drugs and alcohol after the initial acute withdrawal period is over can definitely be done on your own, as many people have proven through their own experiences.
In fact, whether you choose to recover on your own or in a rehab program, it is always you that is rehabilitating yourself. No one can make you get sober you have to want it on a deep level.
You have to be willing to do what it takes to make the necessary changes in your life. You have to embrace the trial by fire. Without that, no treatment program or AA process will be able to help you.
What everyone does usually need is some support along the way. Recovery is hard enough doing it with the help of others eases the burden.
However and wherever you choose to recover, you may need some or all of these things:
- Support from people like you whove been through this and understand what youre going through, and can provide advice on what worked for them
- Tips and training on how to prevent relapse
- Counseling or therapy
- Medication to ease post-acute withdrawal syndrome
- Help with establishing a new life work, living arrangements, etc.
- Ongoing encouragement during this months-long process
Your Physical And Mental Health Is In Danger
Changes to physical appearance a common side effect of drug use. Significant changes in weight, marks from picking at skin, tired/drained look, and many more can be a tell-tale sign of drug addiction.
Aside from physical appearance, there are many consequences to ones health. This includes, but is not limited to: depression, anxiety, liver disease, seizures, and many more depending on the drug used. Frequency of use is another major factor in how a drug affects your body.
Without rehab, quitting drugs may be quite uncomfortable when experiencing severe physical or mental health symptoms.
One major benefit of going into a structured rehab program is that you will receive physical and mental health assistance. This allows you to focus on getting and staying clean, knowing you will be safe in the hands of qualified professionals.
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How Addictions Can Affect You
The strain of managing an addiction can seriously damage your work life and relationships. In the case of substance misuse , an addiction can have serious psychological and physical effects.
Some studies suggest a person’s risk of becoming addicted is partly genetic, but environmental factors, such as being around other people with addictions, are also thought to increase the risk.
Behaviours such as substance misuse can be a way of blocking out difficult issues. Unemployment and poverty can trigger addiction, along with stress and emotional or professional pressure.
What Quitting Drugs Feels Like
When you reduce or quit using drugs your body goes through a detoxification process or withdrawal.
Symptoms vary between people, and between drugs, and range from mild to serious. They can last from a few days to a few weeks it’s different for every person but they are temporary. Cravings for the drug will sometimes be weak and at other times very strong. Learning how to manage them is important for staying drug-free.
Find out what withdrawal symptoms are for specific drugs.
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Why Do People Relapse
A significant part of recovery is setting yourself for long-lasting sobriety after the treatment program is over. We want to give you the confidence to continue recovery on your own. The most common reasons why people relapse is:
- Not enough motivation
- Not enough changes to environment or habits
- Intense PAWS symptoms
- Other contributing factors such as trauma, mental illness, etc. havent been adequately addressed and treated
Choice Of Primary Drug
As mentioned above, withdrawal symptoms differ depending on the type of drug. Weed is not as addictive as heroin, for example. So if your pot consumption is excessive, you could realistically quit or reduce your intake without treatment.
But quitting drinking and benzos âcold turkeyâ can kill you. Rehabs offer safe detoxes where medication can reduce discomfort. A medical setting is also optimal if multiple substances are at play.
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Drug Withdrawal Can Be Fatal
Sometimes the symptoms that occur because of substance withdrawal are very serious. They can even lead to death. Some of the more serious symptoms that can be experienced include seizures, tremors, convulsions, respiratory failure, strokes and heart attacks. Its also possible for the withdrawal process tobe fatal. Can heroin withdrawal kill you? While many people think heroin would have some of the worst withdrawal symptoms, quitting this substance is not likely to be fatal. Quitting opioids like heroin can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as muscle aches and other pain, cravings, fever, tremors and digestive troubles. Is alcohol withdrawal fatal? It may surprise people to know that even though alcohol is legal and not always seen as a big deal, withdrawal from it can indeed be fatal. Stopping alcohol, especially too suddenly, can lead to serious symptoms that include stroke, seizures and heart attack. Withdrawal from benzodiazepines, a class of prescription medications, can be equally fatal, if not approached while under medical supervision. While withdrawal from other substances can be extremely uncomfortable and at times, debilitating, they dont tend to put recovering addicts at a high risk for death.
Drug Withdrawal Symptoms And Dangers
The withdrawal process is the main reason people should generally not aim to overcome addiction without the help of professionals. The withdrawal process can be uncomfortable and result in many people going back to the substance to make the symptoms stop. In other words, the process can get in the way of successful recovery. Further, in some cases, withdrawal can actually be dangerous and even fatal. Thats why its smart, and sometimes essential, to gain professional support in going through the withdrawal process.
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Family History Of Addiction
Substance abuse runs in families. People can be genetically wired to be prone to addiction. But that doesnât mean you donât have the ability to change.
If substances are free-flowing in your home environment, thatâs clearly not conducive to sobriety. If youâre able to find alternate housing that is more stable, you may be able to stop drug addiction without rehab.
How To Quit Drinking Without Alcoholics Anonymous
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 63 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 29 testimonials and 96% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 912,448 times.Learn more…
Many people who recognize that they have a drinking problem arent aware that there are alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous. This article, for example, outlines the CORE process, which stands for Commit, Objectify, Respond, Enjoy. By employing these simple techniques, you can beat the bottle quietly — and for free — in the dignity of your own home.
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Committing To The Decision
When It Comes To Treating Addiction Dont Limit Yourself
There are also times when trauma isnt involved and youve ended up physically addicted to something almost by accident . When it comes to how to beat drug addiction, you need to figure out both the Whys? and the What nows? as well in order to truly travel the road towards sobriety without tripping on the way.
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Create Goals And Work Towards Obtaining Them
Having goals and listing them helps you to center your thinking. If you are taking steps to fulfill your goals, you have less time to worry about using. Focusing on what you want your life to be is an excellent way to avoid using. A goal might be something simple like getting through the next hour, day, or week without using or it might be something more complex like going back to school or finding the right job. Goals need to be clearly defined, have a timeline, and be obtainable. No matter what the goal is, having a clear and decisive plan helps to prevent relapse.
Resources: Identifying Strengths And Weaknesses Developing Skills To Fill The Gaps
Overcoming addiction requires you to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and to address your weaknesses effectively. This involves two related sets of activities:
- First, you need to assess what resources you already have and what resources you currently lack.
- Then you need to develop the skills that will allow you to expand your resources. Moreover, these skills themselves are critical in overcoming addiction.
Not all people are created equal in terms of kicking addictions. You might think, Sure, I could lose weight if I had a personal trainer and chef like Oprah and those Hollywood stars. However, compared to someone else who cant afford a health club membership, you may be in a relatively good position to get in shape. Take someone working at a marginal jobsay, a single mother who waitresses. What does she do during a break or following work in order to relax? Smoking seems like the cheapest, easiest relief she can turn to, while a better-off person might take an aerobics class.
Research shows that the more resources people have and develop, the more likely they are to recover from addiction. Resources are not limited to money. Here are key assets in fighting an addiction:
Key Assets in Fighting Addiction
- Intimacy and supportive relationship
5.1. Assessing Your Strengths and Resources
- I quit smoking.
- People turn to me in crisis.
- I have always held a job.
- I have good relationships with my children.
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Quitting An Addictive Behavior
Quitting is a different experience for everyone. Some find the process liberating and empowering, and feel they can achieve anything. Others find it painful, difficult, and frustrating, sometimes needing many failed attempts before achieving their goal. Still others discover new sides to themselves during the quitting process .
There is no “right” way to feel while you are quitting. But if you are feeling depressed or find yourself constantly wanting to return to the addictive behavior, you should seek support and treatment.
How Do I Stop Using Drugs Naturally
Natural methods for escaping drug addiction exist, and essentially act as an alternative to traditional rehabilitation. For those with an ample desire to beat addiction and the right tools, self-guided recovery is possible. However, attempting to stop using drugs without any form of professional help can be extremely difficult.
Do not attempt addiction recovery on your own without ample research. It is not impossible, but it is more difficult than enrolling in a rehab program. Here are some tips for anyone considering taking their rehabilitation into their own hands.
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Making The Decision To Change
But sooner or later, most people who have an addiction decide a change needs to happen. Once the decision is made, most people have a specific goal in mind. It might be to quit entirely, to quit some addictive behaviors or substances , to reduce the amount of time or money spent on addictive behaviors, or to reduce the harm of an addictive behavior.
For example, many drug users decide to quit heroin or meth but continue to drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes or marijuana. Many heavy drinkers have the goal of just one drink a day, or only drinking socially.
Getting clear on your goal before putting it into practice is helpful for success in changing an addictive behavior.
Although quitting entirely is the best path to wellness, reducing or eliminating the most harmful substance use is a huge improvement and will greatly reduce the harm caused.
The same is true of behavioral addictions: Anyone who decides to quit eating entirely is putting themselves at serious risk for an eating disorder. But stopping overeating and embracing a healthy diet is a healthy decision to change.
Complete abstinence from sex can be another form of sex addiction, known as sexual anorexia, yet developing healthy intimacy after a sex addiction can be greatly fulfilling. And reducing obsessive exercise to healthy levels is likely to improve health and wellness more than quitting exercise entirely.
Why 21 Days Isnt Enough
The assumption that it takes 21 days to break a habit comes from a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. In the book, author and plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz noticed that his patients need about 21 days to get used to their new faces. But addiction is more powerful than an ordinary habit, and recent studies show that for most people, 21 days isnt enough time to see any substantial change.
Research shows that it takes about 66 days to change repetitive behavior patterns. One landmark study conducted by researchers at the University College London discovered that the time individuals needed to change their behavior patterns varied from 18 to 254 days. The study also concluded that most people take at least 2 months to develop new behavior patterns.
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Helping Someone Quit Drugs
Watching someone you care about use drugs is stressful. Their behaviour can be erratic and talking to them about their problem is challenging.
Here are some tips on how you can help:
- Learn about the effects of drugs this will help you understand why quitting can be hard.
- Show that you care without judging being calm and respectful may encourage them to be open and honest with you.
- Be positive and encouraging rather than negative and nagging remember relapses may happen, but they dont mean the person cant try again, and succeed.
- Offer practical support sometimes just being there is enough, but you can offer to go with them to parties or join them for a walk or run.
Find more tips on helping someone quit drugs on the Alcohol and Drug Foundation site.
How To Overcome An Addiction
This article was co-authored by Tiffany Douglass, MA. Tiffany Douglass is the Founder of Wellness Retreat Recovery Center, a JCAHO accredited drug and alcohol treatment program based in San Jose, California. She is also the Executive Director for Midland Tennessee at JourneyPure. She has over ten years of experience in substance abuse treatment and was appointed a Global Goodwill Ambassador in 2019 for her efforts in residential addiction treatment. Tiffany earned a BA in Psychology from Emory University in 2004 and an MA in Psychology with an emphasis on Organization Behavior and Program Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University in 2006.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 25 testimonials and 87% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,137,099 times.
Theres a myth out there that addiction is inescapable or something thats locked in for life, but thats definitely not the case. In fact, more people succeed at overcoming their addiction than fail.XResearch source Acknowledging that youre addicted to something and wanting to change are the first steps, so youre on the right track! This article will show you how to come up with a plan for overcoming your addiction and stick with it, even when things get tough.
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