Looking to the Future: Tips for Maintaining Sobriety
After you leave residential detoxification treatment, you’ll need strategies to stay on track during the lifelong process of recovery. Your therapist can provide you with a much more exhaustive list of do’s and don’ts for retaining sobriety, but these three tips will give you an idea of what to expect.
1. Sleep, Eat, Exercise, Repeat
There is an inextricable link between your physical health and your mental health, and maintaining your body is a crucial part of staying safely sober. During your stay at Diamond House, you’ll have the benefit of gourmet meals prepared with nutrition in mind, and you’ll learn about how to eat well outside of treatment. Exercise is essential in healing your body and mind, and good sleep habits can prevent stress that triggers drug cravings.
2. Pick up a Constructive Hobby
When you’ve cut drug use out of your life, you may find yourself with a lot of extra time on your hands. If you’re not careful, that idle time can lead to renewed drug cravings. Picking up a hobby, especially one with a physical component, can provide structure and entertainment that fill the void drug use leaves behind. Take up painting, join a casual sports team or learn to build cabinets. Any constructive activity can strengthen your sobriety significantly.
3. Find New Friends
When you’re embarking on a journey to better yourself, you often find some people in your life are holding you back. You may find some of your friendships lose their luster without the common denominator of drug use, or that some friends enable you to use when they should be providing support.
Part of recovery is surrounding yourself with people who will help keep your path to permanent sobriety clear, rather than putting obstacles in your way. Doing so may require you to make new friends.