Relapse is a reality for every drug or alcohol addict in recovery. In fact, according to numerous online studies, around forty to sixty people suffer from it during their journey towards a drug-free life. However, you must never think of relapse as a failure. On the contrary, misfortunate events are part of life, and this is just a way for addicts to cope with stress, depression, or anxiety.
While you might have heard other people use this term more often, do you know what it means? In simple words, relapse happens when an addict in recovery falls off track and starts abusing drugs or drinking alcohol again. In the end, recovery is a process of minimizing, avoiding, and recognizing triggers.
These triggers kick in when our brain works overtime and stimulates itself to use drugs again. While these triggers vary from person to person, avoiding them is necessary to prevent relapsing, wasting months of effort and time. So, if you’re going through recovery but have a fear of relapsing, this article is for you.
Never panic
Relapse might feel like the end of the world, especially if you’re an addict who just spent a couple of years in rehab. However, try to be calm and remember you aren’t alone in your journey to recovery. Don’t let a momentary lapse of judgment decide your actual progress.
Don’t panic and maintain a positive image and look at the end goal to avoid relapsing in the future.
Get professional treatment
While it is easier for some people to recover in a residential setting, others with more severe drug problems have to check into rehab or a recovery center like Serenity at Summit to treat their drug abuse issues and stay on track.
These recovery centers and rehabs are experts at their craft for helping addicts on their road to recovery, and its importance shouldn’t be understated. Sure, it might not be easy to adjust at the start, but with the availability of medical care and other facilities, relapsing at a rehab, recovery center, or rehab is minimal.
Practice meditation
Mindful meditation allows you to focus on the present and yourself and increase your clarity and awareness. Moreover, there are numerous ways you can meditate to keep your mind focused and on track towards your recovery goals.
For example, you can take time and focus your total concentration on how deep breathing feels. Furthermore, you focus on the air that goes out and comes in if you want to achieve clarity via mindfulness.
So, give mindful meditation a try because it will help you stay away from drug cravings as you’ll think with a clear mind why taking drugs now will lead to relapse and waste months worth of effort.
Eat a healthy diet
Without a doubt, a healthy diet is beneficial for you, regardless of your situation. Along with an exercise regimen, it is also essential to look after your nutritional health, especially if you have given up addiction and want to avoid relapsing in the future.
Ensure that you’re eating a healthy diet that contains vegetables, fruits, milk, meat, eggs, nuts, and other nutritional food items to reduce the risk of relapse. However, before you add new food items into your diet, consider seeing a doctor or nutritionist.
It will ensure that your food choices don’t cause a reaction when you take them with your prescription medicine.
Look for meaningful activities
To prevent returning to your old ways and falling to drugs again, consider replacing your past activities with new, meaningful ones. An easy way to achieve this is by adopting new hobbies such as playing music, cooking, and others to fill the void when you give up an addiction.
Furthermore, you can also volunteer at your local charity or animal shelter to keep your mind distracted and away from thoughts of drug usage. In fact, according to studies, around 96 percent said that volunteering improved their mood, while 76 percent said it made them look and feel healthier.
Create a support network
While in recovery, isolation can sometimes lead to relapse so, ensure that your recovery strategy includes reaching out to individuals or groups for support and help. Doing so will allow you to tackle bad times and not be alone when you need someone the most.
In addition, it will reduce your chances of relapsing tenfold.
While there are tons of support groups out there, such as the AA and the NA, joining a recovery group ASAP is the best course to curb any cravings and keep on track to recovery and a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.
Conclusion
Staying clean after coming out of a rehab or recovery center is challenging but doable. But, in the end, it all depends on the amount of motivation and dedication you have. Whether or not you want to be sober and stay on the right course is totally in your hands.
So, if you are someone who values their health and overall well-being, you will do everything you can to stay away from a life of addiction.