Successfully Staying Sober After Rehab

Once you’ve entered rehab to deal with your drug or alcohol addiction, your work is just getting started. You’ll need to take steps to remain sober after medical detoxification and rehab, and having the right tips and mindset can help keep you on the path to success and satisfaction for the long haul.

Find a Support System

While the rehabilitation center you attended is likely to offer you a support system, there’s nothing wrong with having multiple support systems. Rather than focusing solely on family and friends, it’s a good idea to also surround yourself with sober friends who also know what you’re going through and can help you resist any temptations you might experience on your new path. See if these individuals would be okay with you calling them should you need someone to talk to.

Consider Counseling and Therapy Sessions

If you have access to the resources, see if there are local counseling and therapy services in which you can engage to help you remain sober. Such sessions can help you better understand why you started using drugs or drinking in the first place so you can get to the root of the matter and modify your behavior and mindset in a way that’s healthy and productive. Your triggers could be emotional, social or environmental. Once you know for sure what those triggers are, you can make changes.

Find New Stomping Grounds

Chances are that your old hangouts trigger some bad memories. For that reason, you’ll want to find new environments and hangouts, ones that are free of temptation. On a related note, you might have to do some rearranging and purging when you return home in case there’s any paraphernalia that may serve as a trigger or bad reminder of your past life and self-destructive actions.

Don’t Forget About Your Nutrition

While therapy and counseling are great for your mental health, you’ve also got to tend to your physical health to help support your sobriety. If you don’t already, change your diet to include healthy foods packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Specifically, anyone in rehab and just getting out of rehab will do well to fill her or his diet with foods rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates and protein. Check to see if your rehab center has a nutritionist on staff who can help you change your diet for the better. Even if you aren’t just getting out of rehab, a proper diet is essential to your well-being and overall health.

Start Exercising

You can support both your sobriety and your new diet by engaging in exercise. Join a gym, or take up kickboxing, yoga, pilates or anything else that interests you. Exercising can go a long way in reducing stress, depression, anxiety and a host of other debilitation emotions you might have upon getting out of rehab. Even better is the fact that exercising is great for releasing endorphins into your system, which elevate your mood and support a positive mindset.

Create Goals for Yourself

Do yourself a favor and set a series of goals for yourself, goals that will help you stay clean and better understand why you want to stay sober. Your goal can be something like find a new career, get in better shape, discover a new hobby or put the money you would otherwise spend on alcohol or drugs into a savings account. Whatever the goal is, make sure it’s one you can actually achieve. Remember, it’s perfectly okay for you to make adjustments to your goal as you work towards them. You’ve got to be kind to yourself and understand that your journey to sobriety might take you to unexpected places, and that’s not always a bad thing.

Be Patient With Yourself

Depending on how long you used drugs or imbibed, it might be more than a little difficult for you to transition to a life of sobriety. For that reason, you’ll need to be patient with and kind to yourself. Recovery and sobriety are things that take time, and taking things one day at a time is in your best interest. Rather than rushing things, take each sober moment as it comes and focus on the path rather than the destination.

It’s essential you set a proper foundation for yourself after you finish rehab. While one part of the process might be complete, there’s much more work that needs to be done.