Your reasons for wanting to get clean and sober may range from regaining your physical health to repairing your most important relationships. However, the ultimate goal of any addiction treatment is maintaining sobriety for the long haul in a life recovery. There are many strategies and techniques that can be used to achieve your long-term sobriety goals, including the support found in substance abuse treatment, a relapse prevention program, and an alumni network. The key is to find compassionate, skilled professional staff and a facility that can help you get clean and stay clean.
Tips for Maintaining Sobriety
Addiction recovery is more complicated than just getting sober. The days, weeks, months, and years ahead of you will involve a unique set of challenges. Life after rehab begins the moment you leave a treatment program. Maybe you will utilize the safety and support of sober living homes before you reintegrate into society. Perhaps you require specialized help with chronic relapse prevention because you expect exposure to harmful triggers, high levels of stress, and toxic people that could threaten your long-term recovery. With professional addiction care, you will be equipped with coping mechanisms and taught essential life skills that will be your tools to prevent relapse and help you with maintaining sobriety for a lifetime.
Maintaining sobriety might seem simple to people who haven’t struggled with addiction, but overcoming a dependency on harmful and dangerous substances and living a healthy, happy life after rehab takes vulnerability, determination, addiction recovery treatment, and peer support through an alumni support program.
There are many steps needed for maintaining sobriety. Here are some of the essential tips for life after rehab.
Complete an Addiction Recovery Program
The first step in a lifetime of sobriety is admitting you have a problem and need professional help in solving it. Addiction is a disease, and as such, a professional addiction treatment program will address your substance use disorder and any underlying mental health issues that may be making it harder to maintain sobriety and avoid relapse. While the type of addiction recovery program you engage with will depend on your specific experiences and symptoms, typically, you will begin with a medical detox before moving on to rehab and therapies to win your battle with addiction and stay sober during life after rehab.
Getting professional help from an addiction recovery treatment program is crucial because trying to quit cold turkey at home is dangerous and often results in relapse. Receiving care from compassionate, trained medical staff in a safe, comfortable facility will help ease your withdrawal symptoms, some of which may be severe. For example, if you struggle with an addiction to opioids, you might experience withdrawal symptoms such as:
- Nausea
- Anxiety
- Seizures
- Migraines
- Mood swings
- Hot flashes or cold chills
Build A Support Network
After you return to everyday life, you will want to be surrounded by supportive and understanding people who appreciate your recovery journey during life after rehab. These people can be friends or family members, classmates or co-workers, or members of a recovery alumni network. What they will have in common is the desire to help with maintaining sobriety.
You will want to eliminate the toxic people from your past. In their place will be supportive people who will not drink or do drugs in your presence, if at all. They will not put you in any situations that could derail your sober life. Just like an addiction treatment program, members of an addiction recovery alumni network are especially crucial because they know firsthand the journey you have endured.
Ongoing Therapy
It’s important to understand that sobriety isn’t a destination but a journey. Maintaining sobriety will require focus and dedication every day. Knowing how to stay sober can be challenging, especially as you face temptation and triggers outside the safety of your addiction treatment. Through ongoing therapy, you will learn about and have reinforced:
- Healthy coping mechanisms to deal with stressful situations
- The harmful triggers common during life after rehab
- Addiction Therapy Programs
Socialize With the Right People
As you work on maintaining sobriety, surround yourself with the right people. This likely means addition by subtraction. If some of your old friends are not encouraging of your sobriety, cut them loose as they pose a threat to your life after rehab. Remember that the best people in your life will love you and support your sober living.
Enjoy Alternative Activities
There are more ways to live a happy life than simply heading to a bar or a nightclub. Be a positive agent of change in the lives of your social circle by seeking out and suggesting alternative activities that promote maintaining sobriety, like:
- Bikes or hikes
- BYOB dinner without a bottle
- Spin class, or yoga
- Host a game night or book club
- Walking tours, museums, or escape rooms
- Take classes to learn new skills like photography, painting, and cooking
- Volunteer to be a positive agent of change in your community
Enroll In A Relapse Prevention Program
Finally, one of the most important steps you will take to maintain sobriety will be enrolling in a relapse prevention program. Here, you will learn how to recognize the early stages of relapse and prevent a relapse from occurring. Additionally, because relapse is a part of the recovery journey, you will be taught how to handle a potential relapse and maintain sobriety.
Reach out for the help you need in getting and staying sober today.