Substance abuse affects every aspect of your life. Deciding to seek treatment is difficult; pursuing treatment and then achieving recovery all the more so. Many people can achieve sobriety in treatment, and may even be in recovery for a while, before going on to relapse. This means they will need to go through the whole process again, which is not ideal. Here are some tips to make your first recovery your only recovery, or how to get recovery right the first time.
Motivation for Healing
One of the most important factors in getting your recovery right the first time is your motivation for healing. Many people make the decision to begin treatment and recovery based on exterior motivators such as legal issues, family, friends, and more. These are all great reasons for you to get help for addiction. However, when you choose to begin your recovery for yourself, even if it is alongside outside motivators, then your motivation comes from a more authentic place. When you are true to yourself and motivated by your own desire to heal, you are more likely to make your recovery last.
Commitment to Recovery
Making your commitment to your recovery is not a one-time event. Your commitment must come from deep within you and be strong enough to overcome moments, days, weeks, or even months of weakness. You need to be prepared to recommit to your recovery every single day for the rest of your life. Making and keeping your commitment to yourself will help you to succeed, but you do not have to do it all alone.
Finding the Right Treatment
Accessing the right treatment will be important to keep you on your recovery path. If religion is not something that is part of your life, then enrolling in a treatment program that has a religious focus may not be as helpful to you. You should find compassionate, caring people to help guide you through your treatment. To heal properly the first time, make sure you are comfortable with the type of treatment being offered, and that it is a program where you feel able to be completely vulnerable.
Giving 100% in Your Treatment
Participating in treatment for addiction recovery is important, but being willing to give 100% in your treatment is what will produce the best results. Being willing to be completely honest with yourself and others, being willing to be totally vulnerable, and being willing to do whatever it takes in treatment is what will help your healing become effective and lasting. When you enter treatment with no holds barred and put yourself completely into every aspect of your treatment, you are the one who will benefit from your emotional and physical efforts.
Making the Hard Choices
Wholesale changes are necessary for recovery. This may mean changing your lifestyle, changing your job, changing where you live, and even changing your relationships with others. These are hard choices. But every choice you make now impacts your future. Sometimes it is even necessary to change the contact you have with family members or dear friends if the relationship is not healthy or may impact your recovery negatively. After everything else in treatment that is hard, this can seem impossible. But when you make the hardest choices, you demonstrate that you are completely committed to your life.
Setting Up a Support Network
No one expects you to go through recovery alone. The more support you have, the more people you have on your team, the more likely you are to win in your recovery. Finding those people in your life who will support you and be there for you in the most challenging times will give you an advantage when your recovery road gets rocky. Being willing to acknowledge that you need help, learning how to ask for it, and then asking when you need it are skills that can make or break your recovery. You are never alone in your recovery. There are always people who care about you; all you have to do is ask.
Learning Relapse Prevention Techniques
Amongst the many new skills and tools that you learn in treatment and recovery, some of the most important will be relapse prevention techniques. These tools, such as mindfulness meditation, HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired inventory), and breathing techniques can help you in those crucial moments when you experience a craving or a trigger. Being mindful of the smallest to the biggest details of your recovery will help you so that you get recovery right the first time.
Whether this is your first time in recovery or you want to make this your last time, your decisions going into treatment can impact your success down the road. From finding the right motivation and committing to yourself wholeheartedly to giving it your all in treatment, you can lay the foundations now to make your recovery successful. By making the changes and tough decisions as well as setting up a support network for yourself, you can build the infrastructure of long-term recovery. Promising Outlook offers group and individual counseling to help you make all of the right decisions for your life. From the big decisions down to the very smallest of decisions, we can offer you support in your healing. Call us today at our Riverside, California location at (951) 783-2487 to find out how to make your recovery successful. Our caring and compassionate staff understand how to help you get your recovery right the first time.
