Dealing with addiction is like living with a lifelong condition. Drug use, especially long-term drug use, rewires your brain and basically changes the way you think. That’s why addictions are often classified as a brain disease. It changes the addiction, makes the compulsion to get high, to get the next fix, stronger, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else. Neither your safety, good name, loved ones matter. That’s how much an addiction can take over your life.
That’s why relapse is a major concern. If you want to make sure it won’t happen, here are a few things you need to keep in mind:
Stay in therapy. That’s the first thing on the list because it’s the most important. The Huffington Post says staying in therapy can help you deal with the emotional issues that caused your drinking problem in the first place. With professional help, you can finally start dealing with the real problem.
Sleep a lot. You need your sleep to get your body in tip-top shape again. Drugs mess with your internal organs. To fix a lot of the effects of the drugs in your system, you need to rest and recover. Sleep can help you do that. Lack of sleep can make you do things you may later regret so to keep yourself out of any trouble, get plenty of winks.
Avoid temptation. You might think you have what it takes to deal with drugs again. But it’s terrifyingly easy to get sucked back into the addiction. Don’t let that happen. You’ll find it harder to recover.
Exercise, says Psych Central. By training your body to be healthy again, it’ll shake off the effects of the drug so you can get your health back in no time.
Don’t treat a relapse as the end of the world. If a relapse happens, don’t think it’s the end of the treatment for you. Think of it as another thing you simply have to conquer. You could also try to find a better drug rehab center in Los Angeles. Maybe a change of treatment programs can work to your advantage. By exploring other ways to get better, by not giving up, you’ll be able to live drug-free sooner or later.
Have an excellent support group. If you’ve got people cheering you on, counting on you and believing you can do, that’s going to go a long way to improving the pace of your recovery. If you don’t have a support group, though, build one.
So follow these tips to help keep relapse at bay. But if it does happen, know that it’s just another challenge you’ll have to face.
The Gooden Center provides drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. Call us for more information on how we can boost your recovery.
