What comes to your mind when you think about self-care? Taking long baths? Days spent at the spa getting pampering massages? While that’s part of it, self-care involves a whole lot more, especially when it comes to addiction recovery.
Recovering from addiction can be a long and challenging journey. Not only are you learning how to live without dependence on drugs and alcohol but also how to take care of yourself. When you’re addicted to a substance, your waking moments are taken over by the habit. You’re either getting high, thinking of it, or recovering from the effects. Once you go into treatment, you finally get time to focus on yourself instead of the addiction.
Self-Care Practices in Addiction Recovery
Recovery from addiction needs to be a holistic process, focused on helping individuals rediscover who they are and giving them the skills needed to rebuild fulfilling lives. That is why we at the Robert Alexander Center for Recovery promote self-care practices in our treatment programs.
We aim to help those in recovery to build healthy habits even as they work towards living as sober individuals. We encourage our clients to take care of their physical, mental, and emotional health as part of recovering from addiction. This way, they not only overcome addiction but also improve their self-esteem and confidence, making them more motivated to continue with their recovery. They also become more resilient as they learn and practice healthy coping mechanisms to deal with stress and other triggers that may lead to relapse.
Some of the self-care practices we encourage include:
- Exercise – Exercise is a great way to get the body moving, helping to fight boredom while improving physical health. It also helps in detoxing by increasing an individual’s energy levels and reducing their cravings.
- Creative activities – Activities such as painting, acting, or playing an instrument allow those in recovery to express themselves and learn new skills or interests which in turn boosts their self-esteem.
- Meditation – Mindfulness practices like meditation allow individuals to slow down, focus on the present and recognize patterns in their thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This helps relieve stress while providing valuable insight into their psyche.
- Healthy nutrition – Poor eating habits are characteristic of addiction. During recovery, individuals learn how to prepare and enjoy healthy meals. This also assists their bodies to recover from the harmful effects of addiction
- Nurturing healthy relationships – Those in recovery require social support, guidance, encouragement, and accountability from their peers to achieve long-term sobriety.
Our Addiction Treatment Programs Promote Self Care
At the Robert Alexander Center for Recovery, we offer customized addiction treatment programs that emphasize self-care including social support through group and family therapy, emotional care through individual counseling in our intensive outpatient program, and learning coping skills and relapse prevention in our outpatient program.
Contact our drug and alcohol rehab center in Kentucky today and we’ll help you find lasting, sustainable recovery from addiction.
