Admitting that you have a problem with addiction, and then setting out to find help to overcome it, is the beginning of the journey toward recovery and sobriety. For this journey to progress well, you need a few things.
This includes a robust support system to give you strength and emotional support, the right rehab facility or treatment program to set you on the path to recovery, and in some cases, medication-assisted treatment to help you manage withdrawal symptoms and keep cravings at bay.
The final requirement for you to recover from addiction is the right set of life skills. These are skills that’ll help you recover and adapt to a sober life, free from the influence of drugs or addiction. They’ll also help prepare you for the life and challenges you’re likely to face after rehab.
Learning new life skills can be challenging, especially coming on the heels of detoxing and recovering from an addiction. However, addiction treatment centers such as Evolve Indy in Indiana have the necessary tools to ensure they teach you these skills and give you a chance to practice them before you leave rehab.
Essential Skills for Addiction Recovery
At Evolve Indy, we want our clients to not only beat addiction but, to also go on and live healthy, fulfilling lives. That’s why we emphasize the following skills:
- Self-care
When you’re addicted to alcohol or drugs, it takes over your life. You become preoccupied with scoring the next hit or drink and neglect everything else. When you’re not high, you’re either thinking of the next high or trying to deal with unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.
Once you go into recovery, all this changes. As the effects of the substances wear off, you’re ready to reclaim parts of your life and you start to realize how important it is to take care of yourself.
At rehab, we encourage our clients to develop healthy habits and routines to complement their recovery. This is at the core of self-care. It includes simple things like personal hygiene and having a clean living space, getting regular exercise, maintaining a nutritious diet, and having a regular sleep pattern. We also teach those in recovery to take care of their mental health through meditation, journaling, and having creative hobbies.
- Problem-solving skills
Many people turn to addiction because they don’t know how to deal with different problems in their lives. Instead of handling these issues, they opt to bury themselves in drugs or alcohol, which often makes things worse.
Part of recovering from addiction involves learning how to solve problems, instead of avoiding them. These skills will come in handy in both your personal and professional life. Problem-solving skills involve learning how to critically think about issues from different angles and getting to the root of problems.
It involves learning how to correctly identify a problem, come up with different solutions, and then choose those you can implement. For this to happen, you need to be open-minded enough to recognize varying angles to a solution and also open to making mistakes. That’s how you learn to solve problems.
- Emotion management skills
During recovery, you also need to learn how to manage your emotions. While you can’t control what happens to you in life, you can control how you respond.
It can be hard for recovering addicts to learn how to control and manage their emotions. Most people in recovery are familiar with using substances to numb their feelings and negative emotions. Without drugs or alcohol to rely on, you need to learn to identify your emotions and get them under control, hence becoming more emotionally stable.
This means learning effective coping skills to deal with stress and your triggers without either sinking into depression or flying into a rage. In rehab, we teach you how to find a healthy outlet for your emotions through meditation, exercising, spending time with your loved ones, nature or pets, or hobbies.
- Communication skills
Addiction is often characterized by the breakdown of communication. As an addict, you spend time trying to feed your addiction while hiding it from your loved ones. In the meantime, the addiction can change your mood and personality, making you prone to anger and frustration. It can also lead to misunderstandings, fights, and resentment as your behavior and personality change.
In recovery, you need to learn how to identify your needs and emotions and to effectively communicate them. You also need to learn how to open up to others while listening to what they have to say.
This is one of the skills we emphasize during our family therapy sessions as we try to get families to communicate and rebuild broken relationships.
- Social skills
Finally, we teach clients how to interact and relate to others in different social settings. Some people experience social anxiety and have insecurities that make it difficult for them to socialize with others. As a result, they turn to alcohol or drugs to give them the self-confidence they need to interact with others.
During the recovery process, you’ll learn how to socialize and build positive friendships and relationships without relying on substances. This can be easier said than done so we encourage clients to participate in group therapy sessions and addiction support groups to learn and practice this skill.
Reach Out to Us Today
Going through recovery is challenging but with help from the right rehab facility, you can learn the essential skills you need to rebuild your life and live free from addiction.
At Evolve Indy, we incorporate teaching these life skills into our addiction treatment programs. We ensure you learn them whether you’re in the partial hospitalization program or undergoing outpatient treatment. Group therapy is also a key component of our treatment programs and we give clients a chance to practice the skills they’ve learned.
Don’t let addiction ruin your life. Reach out to us and let us help you with personalized treatment options to help you kick your addiction.