Support from caring friends and family is crucial in helping individuals in recovery stay sober, but knowing how to approach a friend’s drinking problem isn’t always easy. If you’re worried about your friend’s alcohol use, this article offers tips to help you express your concerns and encourage your friend to seek treatment.
Addiction is a biologically based brain disease and not the result of a lack of willpower. Someone with a substance use disorder will continue to abuse alcohol despite experiencing negative consequences. The compulsion to drink overcomes all other desires.
Essentially, mindfulness is the opposite of addiction. Mindfulness relies on a focused effort to limit the negative impact of painful feelings, while addiction simply offers a temporary escape from your problems. Mindfulness promotes accountability and personal responsibility, while addiction leads to denial and dishonesty.
Focusing on the present moment without worrying about past mistakes or what the future holds is an excellent way to lower stress, reduce anxiety, and ease depression. However, it takes time to develop this skill. We are all so used to multi-tasking and trying to be as efficient as possible that mindfulness requires a dramatic change in our way of life.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) puts patients in control of their recovery by helping them to modify dysfunctional thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. For men and women suffering from substance use disorders, CBT often plays a vital role in building the foundation for a lasting recovery.
In CBT, the therapist is part teacher and part teammate. He or she provides education to help you better understand how your thoughts affect your behaviors and emotions, then works with you to create action plans that help you achieve your recovery goals.
One important, but often overlooked, part of the recovery journey is the need for emotional sobriety. Since it’s common for people with substance use disorders to turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate their emotional distress, learning to process emotions in a healthy way is an essential step in preventing relapse.
Since no two people are alike, everyone experiences recovery a bit differently. However, emotional sobriety generally means:
Recovering from alcoholism can create special challenges, since alcohol is a common feature at social gatherings. Learning how to turn down a drink can take some practice, but there are a number of strategies you can use to make sober socializing a bit easier.
If you don’t want a glass of wine or a beer, a simple “No, thank you” should be sufficient. You can share that you’re in recovery if you feel comfortable doing so, but you don’t owe anyone an explanation for your choice.
At Waypoint Recovery Center’s South Carolina drug and alcohol addiction treatment program, personalized treatment plans are developed as part of each individual’s continuum of care. Often, this includes participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or a similar 12-Step group.
The 12-Step approach offers multiple benefits for men and women in recovery. For example:
Depression and anxiety are common co-occurring mental health disorders among men and women seeking treatment for substance abuse. In many cases, these conditions can be managed through the same lifestyle modifications that promote lasting sobriety.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, famously said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Making a conscious effort to eat nutritious foods can help minimize your cravings for drugs and alcohol while stabilizing your overall mood.
Although the causes of addiction are complex and difficult to understand, there is a strong correlation between childhood trauma and the development of substance use disorders. To promote a lasting recovery, the effects of trauma must be considered as part of an individual’s treatment program.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was a groundbreaking look at how childhood trauma affects a person’s long-term mental health. The study looked at the experiences of over 17,000 individuals and asked if they had experienced any of the following types of trauma: