Communication And Healthy Relationships
Many of our clients have severely damaged their personal relationships as a result of their substance use. They may ignore those who are trying to help them or blame others as the reason they drink or use drugs. That mentalitythat other people are to blameis a form of denial that prevents us from assessing our own behavior.
We work with clients, their families and their partners to:
- Understand the importance of a healthy support system.
- Identify and eliminate the unrealistic expectations we place on the people in our lives.
Clients will learn that their anger and resentment are products of their own fear. Once they realize that their troubles are the result of their own doing, they will begin to emancipate themselves from the repetitive practices that harmed themselves and others in their lives.
Coping With Stress And Emotions In Recovery
When it comes to coping with stress and emotions, unfortunately, weve all been there. Yet, when learning to cope, among other life skills for recovering addicts, avoiding stressful triggers are very necessary. However, especially when emotions are involved, this is not always easy.
While women in recovery often have the most difficult time away from family, womens sober living homes offer the necessary support. Although wed all like to be independently resilient, it is not always as easy when relapse looms. Yet helping each other to bounce back and keep moving forward is a quality life skill for recovering addicts. likewise, being able to provide that for another, instills a sense of purpose.
The Importance Of Life Skills For Recovering Addicts
Basic life skills are starting points of development, evolving into the emotional, psychological, and physical individuals we all are. Yet, because of the differences in how each person harnesses their strengths, no two skills are mutually exclusive. Individuals in recovery often need to adjust the way they utilize certain life skills after addiction.
Basic life skills are starting points of development, evolving into the emotional, psychological, and physical individuals we all are. Yet, because of the differences in how each person harnesses their strengths, no two skills are mutually exclusive. Individuals in recovery often need to adjust the way they utilize certain life skills after addiction.
Learning and developing new life skills is important no matter who you are. They contribute to our jobs, to our well-being, to our family responsibilities, and our relationships. Everything youve ever done in your life has required some sort of life skill to complete the task. However, in recovery, some skills are even more valuable and may require some extra effort.
Essential recovery skills are often the focus after rehab. Many sober living activities are extremely enjoyable, and there are many to choose from. While it certainly can sound like a chore, with professional guidance, it can be fun! Getting to know oneself, while residing in a sober environment, and learning new important skills, makes up a healthy recovery.
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Learn How To Communicate
One essential skill to learn during recovery is to communicate well. This is important for building relationships with family members, friends, co-workers, and even people you just met. You should learn how to express your feelings accurately, how to be open to other points of view, how to have meaningful conversations, and how to listen whole-heartedly.
Essential Life Skills For Addiction Treatment
One crucial step in addiction treatment is identifying the damage caused by drugs and developing ways to deal with it. In most cases, this process can involve evaluating the damage and setting goals to get better. Setting these targets will help assess progress throughout the recovery process.
The inability to handle stress and control emotions is one of the primary causes of drug abuse. Hence, learning how to avoid and cope with stress can speed up recovery and prevent relapse. Some users also neglect personal care practices, like eating a balanced diet and exercising. One of the abilities that life skills training can help someone develop is self-care practices. For instance, one may learn more about the benefits of a healthy diet and adequate sleep.
Addiction also causes conflicts with loved ones, which affects interaction and communication. So, most treatment centers have life skills training to teach people how to improve their communication. For instance, a therapist may show patients how to express themselves without offending others.
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Living Your Life One Day At A Time
Perhaps the most important skill youll learn in rehab is how to take life one day at a time. Your recovery journey wont be without its ups and downs, but if you use the other skills on this list, youll be able to get through anything. Its a difficult road, but the end result is worth itand your rehab care team will be there to support you every step of the way.
Goal Setting And Accountability
Being accountable for our actions is a critical component of maturity. Setting and achieving attainable goals requires discipline. The Life Skills Program helps clients understand the importance of these concepts not just in therapy, but during the day-to-day. Clients adhere to a daily schedule, participate in household chores, help prepare meals and hold one another accountable. Our goal is to help clients adopt healthy habits through hard work so they will be ready to progress into the next phase of recovery.
Clients learn about:
- Why it is so important to recreate our lives using goals and intent
- How to be organized and stay focused
- Understanding time management so stress does not overwhelm us
- What attitudes and beliefs we hold about work and career, and how they need to be changed
- Are we waiting for somebody to take care of us, or are we going to assert ourselves?
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The First Rule Of Recovery
You dont recover from an addiction by stopping using. You recover by creating a new life where it is easier to not use. If you dont create a new life, then all the factors that brought you to your addiction will eventually catch up with you again.
You dont have to change everything in your life. But there are a few things and behaviors that have been getting you into trouble, and they will continue to get you into trouble until you let them go. The more you try to hold onto your old life in recovery, the less well you will do.
Here are some common things that people need to change in order to achieve recovery.
Life Skills Reduce Stress
Few challenges are more dangerous in recovery than feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, but if you dont have the basic skills you need to live on your own, youre likely to feel that way a lot. However, if you have some guidance and a plan, youre much more likely to feel like you can handle lifes problems, even if you make mistakes along the way. For example, people worry about money more than just about anything else. If you dont know some basics of personal finance, youre going to run into a lot of money problems. For most people, this stress is largely unnecessary and learning just a few basics like opening bank accounts, automating bills and savings, and sticking to a budget can let them breathe much easier.
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Important Life Skills Needed After Rehab
While many life skills involve being able to cope with stressful emotions and manage ones stress, other life skills involve tasks that help the individual live independently and without the assistance of others. Some of the other life skills that will likely be needed after rehab include the following:
- Finding a Job: Finding employment post-rehab can be difficult. However, some rehabilitation centers will help in applying for jobs and resume help.
- Managing Your Finances: Managing ones money is important to achieving independence. Some of the aspects of managing ones finances include opening a big account, saving money, paying off debt, and learning to live on a budget.
- Home maintenance: It is important to maintain ones home. Home maintenance does not necessarily mean learning plumbing or electrical work but simply that the individual must learn how to clean a home and make sure that all appliances and systems are operating safely.
- Cooking: Cooking and understanding nutrition are important skills for living a healthy lifestyle.
Pursuing Healthy Hobbies And Other Interests
Additionally, life skills training also emphasizes pursuing new hobbies and interests that are healthy and recovery-oriented. Newly recovering addicts will be encouraged to enjoy activities such as reading, learning a musical instrument, learning to cook, fitness, or other hobbies and interests which had taken a backseat during their addiction. These activities will allow recovering addicts to enjoy life to the fullest and will help them establish new and meaningful friendships. Ultimately, engaging in hobbies help addicts grow emotionally and spiritually and help promote positive change.
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Build Effective Interpersonal Communication Skills
Most importantly, life skills training will help your recovery by re-establishing relationships by teaching effective communication skills. Along with reconnecting with family and friends, people who are newly recovering are also taught how to work through those emotional issues which could be hindering their growth in recovery. Additionally, recovering addicts will also learn how to form new friendships and learn strategies on how to avoid those stressful situations can lead to relapse.
Creative And Critical Thinking
Creative thinking involves intentionally gaining different ways of thinking and examining issues from different viewpoints. Critical thinking is defined as the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue to form a judgment. Learning to think differently about problems and find solutions is vital for maintaining sobriety after rehab.
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Emotions Of Recovering Addicts
Stress
The most important set of life skills for a recovering addict is how to deal with stress without drugs or alcohol. Stress is the number one trigger for recovering addicts to relapse. Unless an addict can learn how to cope with stress in a healthy way, long-term sobriety is unobtainable.
Many non-addicts also struggle with coping with stress in a healthy way. Non-addicts may not reach for drugs to deal with stress, but they often use unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as overeating or blowing the budget on a shopping trip, to deal with stressful situations. Learning that stress is a frequent part of life, and learning healthy ways to cope are useful skills for anyone. These skills are absolutely essential for addicts to keep from relapsing.
Some of the skills taught to recovering addicts about how to cope with stress include realizing that stressful feelings are normal, recognizing them as a possible dangerous trigger of relapse, and then healthy coping skills to relieve the feelings. Healthy coping mechanisms include exercise, yoga, meditation, listening to music, talking to a friend. Most recovering addicts are also given some kind of emergency help line to call if all else fails and they know they are about to relapse.
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Developing Healthy Coping Mechanisms
Many people develop a substance abuse disorder as a way to cope with stressors in their lives. Unfortunately, drug and alcohol use can only numb the pain for so long before it becomes a stressor in and of itself.
In order to maintain sobriety, you cant just cut substance use out of your life. You have to replace it with healthy coping mechanisms such as:
- Exercise
- Playing music or creating art
- Spending time outdoors
- Spending time with family, friends, and pets
Youll spend a lot of your time in rehab re-training yourself to use these positive strategies when things get tough. Developing solid coping skills for addiction will help you avoid giving in to relapse urges and take back control of your life.
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Asking For Help And Reaching Out
Learning how to reach out to others for help is one of the most essential life skills that you learn during rehab. As the phrase coined by support group Alcoholics Anonymous goes, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.
Youve already taken this first step by entering a treatment program, but it can still be difficult to ask loved ones for help when you need it. A good rehab program will teach you how to identify your true needs and communicate them effectively. Reaching out requires a great deal of courage, which youll work on building as you go through treatment.
Mastering Your Life Skills In Rehab
Theres no better way to get a jump start on learning and mastering these crucial life skills than in rehab. To learn more, please dont hesitate to contact us at Vertava Health Texas Rehab. We can get you started on a new path in life and ready for a healthy future. Contact us today and get started at Vertava Health Texas!
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Communication And Interpersonal Skills
Good communication skills are vital to a person who is in recovery from addiction. Its important to be able to express your feelings or emotions rather than hold them inside. Interpersonal skills include the ability to handle conflict, verbal and non-verbal communication, positive attitude, empathy, and the ability to listen to others.
Having A Daily Routine
Recovery from a substance use disorder is a long-term process requiring continued support to help you maintain sobriety and avoid relapse. It will help if you create a routine to ensure you stay away from drugs. It is a challenge to give up on your old habits, but you can manage this by having a solid routine that includes activities to help you stay sober.
Fortunately, a qualified drug rehab center has professionals who can offer proven techniques to enable you to cultivate new habits. After addiction recovery, you will know how to create a daily and weekly schedule to build your life without relapsing.
At rehab, you will gain essential skills through various addiction treatment services, including:
- Individual therapy program
- Group therapy
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Essential Life Skills For People In Recovery
Here are eight of the main life skills people in recovery will benefit from practicing in their daily lives. These skills are proven to support individuals during their recovery journey:
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- Funding made possible by NC Dept. of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.
It Helps You Develop Healthy Relationships With Others
One of the key components of relapse prevention is having strong, supportive relationships with others. This includes both personal and professional relationships. A lot of times, addiction causes a crack in these relationships. People in addiction often push away the people who care about them the most.
Life skills training can help you build better relationships by teaching you how to communicate effectively, empathize with others, and deal with stress in a healthy way. As you begin to apply these skills, you will start to repair the damage that addiction has done to your relationships.
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Vocational Or Educational Pursuits
Having a plan in place for how youll spend much of your time after addiction or mental health treatment is an essential life skill in recovery. Studies show that being employed significantly reduces the risk of addiction relapse. If youre not working right now, going to school or having a volunteer position can provide the same sense of purpose and self-reliance as a job. One of the focuses of outpatient treatment is sometimes helping you figure out these next steps. Staff may help you create a resume and get interviews or fill out school applications.
Exercise Regularly & Live An Active Lifestyle
When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which help you feel good and stay happy. Physical activity also helps relieve stress, diminishes feelings of depression, and helps get rid of the chemicals and toxins your body has absorbed from drug and alcohol abuse. You should also make it a habit to treat yourself to a nutritious satisfying meal after an invigorating workout.
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Managing Stress And Emotions In A Healthy Way
Stress and other negative emotions are a huge contributing factor in drug and alcohol abuse. In fact, research out of Marquette University has linked high stress to cocaine abuse and relapse. Its critical to recognize stress, anxiety, depression, and other intense emotions as a potential trigger in recovering individuals.
Drugs and alcohol often serve as self-medication for difficult emotions. A rehab program will teach you how to identify and get in touch with your emotions. Youll build the skills you need to manage them appropriately when things get tough.
