Fighting Addiction: 5 Top Tips for Changing Your Life
If you have an addiction, you are not alone. Around 10 percent of adults will have a drug use disorder at some point in their lifetime. Fighting addiction is a very difficult battle.
Looking for addiction help? Keep reading for some top tips to help you with overcoming addiction and help get your life back on track.
- Build Connections
When you want to get sober, you need to know you are not alone. You need to build a strong support group because you don’t have to do this alone. Make sure you spend your time with people that genuinely care about you to help you increase your recovery chances.
Reach out to positive influences like your family, friends, or a recovery support group. It can be extremely helpful to spend time with individuals that truly know what you are going through. These people will not judge you on your past mistakes and you can help hold each other accountable.
- Know Your Triggers
To help avoid relapsing, you need to know your triggers. Everyone that has an addiction has their own set of triggers that provoke their addictions. For example, going out with friends and craving alcohol if you are a recovering alcoholic.
Sit down and write down all the scenarios that can set off a situation to make you uncomfortable. Then make a plan on how you can manage them.
- Look for Healthy Distractions
When managing addictions, engaging in healthy activities can help fill your time. Channel your energy to things like hiking, exercising, playing with your children, taking a road trip, or any other activity you enjoy that serves as a distraction. This can help you deal with triggers also.
- Practice Mindfulness
If you have gone to any kind of professional help for your addiction, you probably talked about cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). During CBT, you find strategies to help you break your unhealthy patterns by learning the connection between your feelings, behaviors, and thoughts.
Mindfulness is more than just chanting mantras or sitting in silence. It can be as simple as stopping and then taking ten deep breaths before moving on. It’s finding yourself at that moment and not needing external factors to feel comfortable, like your addiction.
- Find the Right Treatment Center
These steps will help you work toward getting sober, but sometimes you can’t do it on your own. You need to seek drug and alcohol treatment. Reaching out and asking for help is a big step to getting sober.
Quitting alcohol or drugs is hard, so you may need some medical intervention at a detox center to help you feel more comfortable. There is no shame in seeking professional treatment.
Start Fighting Addiction
You are not alone when fighting addiction. Even when you are clean and sober, it can still be trying. Surround yourself with positive influences, find some healthy distractions, know your triggers, and practice your mindfulness—you can do this!
Looking for healthy distractions? Visit our Health section for some ideas on eating healthy and finding a fitness routine for you.
