The Four Things to Do After Rehab
to Get Your Life Back on Track
Coming out the other side of rehab is a remarkable achievement. It’s a gruelling and lengthy process no matter what you’ve been addicted to.
From the decision you have a problem you wish to tackle, right through to recovery and the rest of your life, it can be a battle, whether that be alcohol abuse, gambling problems, or the likes of heroin or cocaine addiction.
But you’ve done it. You’ve got through the cocaine withdrawal, or whatever you may have been addicted to - suffering the sweats, the beating heart, headaches, mood swings and depression that all come with withdrawal, and you’ve taken the necessary steps to run through effective treatment to get your life back on track.
However, while getting through treatment isn’t easy, getting back out into the world can be equally as difficult. If you’ve been suffering from addiction and you’re ready to start integrating yourself back into society, here are our top tips to help you…
Surround yourself with the right people
If you’d previously been surrounding yourself with friends who were also drug users or misused alcohol, for example, then re-integrating into that friendship group is only going to lead to disaster.
It’s important to cut ties with anyone who could have a negative impact on your life. This includes stopping seeing them, deleting their contact details and generally avoiding the places they go.
It’s crucial to protect yourself from these influences, so that means it’s time to make new friends. Think about hobbies and classes to get into, while there are plenty of support groups out there that can also aid with this, helping develop much healthier friendship groups for you to immerse yourself in.
Stick to your recovery plan
When you leave treatment, you’ll often be given a recovery plan. This will involve a range of things from recovery sessions to working with sponsors and various other therapy sessions. You won’t just be cast aside when you’ve left a treatment centre, so ensure you stick to that plan and take the aftercare that is provided. This will help continue to avoid relapse and keep you on track.
Keep Busy
Staying busy is always a good way to take your mind of temptation and keeping active and busy is a useful way to also become part of a healthier community and make new friends, whether that be through volunteering, getting a part-time job or joining a club of some sort, whether it be sports, arts and crafts, or anything else.
What is important, however, is that you don’t overwork yourself as this can also lead to stress and anxiety, which in turn could trigger a relapse.
Get Help
If you do feel like you’re struggling though with re-immersing yourself back into the world, then get help. Relapse isn’t uncommon when in recovery and it doesn’t mean failure or your initial rehab was a waste of time.
As part of the recovery plan there will always be help on offer to you, so use it if you need to. By doing so, it will give you the best possible chance to stay on track and leading a happy, healthier life.