Over 2.6 million people suffer from addiction to alcohol, drugs, and other “mind-altering” substances. These people experience repeated treatment failures and do not realize that conventional approaches to treatment, like workshops, lack long-term stability. While there are various opinions on the best approach to treating this affliction when examining the results achieved, most agree that the program’s success is limited.
The Last Resort Recovery Center provides an integrated approach that targets obstacles for a particular client or group of clients anywhere along their journey toward recovery. Read to learn the innovative approach to addiction treatment.
Identify Your Problematic Behaviors
Identify the problematic behaviors causing you to struggle. For example, if you are addicted to drugs and alcohol, you may experience a range of issues in your personal and professional life as a result of your substance abuse. These could include health problems, academic problems, legal problems, financial problems, relationship problems, or other issues.
The key is to identify what is going wrong in your life and how it affects you. It is difficult to do on your own, especially if you have been using it for a long time or have suffered from multiple addictions. Talk with an experienced counselor who can help guide you through this process.
Take Responsibility for Your Actions
Once you’ve identified the areas where your addiction has caused damage in your life and others, take complete responsibility for those actions. It might mean apologizing to those affected by your behavior or taking corrective action regarding situations resulting from your addiction (such as returning stolen money). Taking responsibility will help set a good foundation for recovery.
Seek Healthy Habits
A healthy habit improves your life and reduces stress. Many healthy habits can help you break the cycle of addiction:
- Exercise releases endorphins in the body and helps people feel better about themselves and their lives. It can also reduce cravings for substances like alcohol and drugs because it provides an outlet for stress and anxiety instead of turning to drugs for relief.
- Meditation helps addicts relax their minds so they aren’t constantly thinking about drugs or alcohol. Meditation also allows addicts to focus on something other than their addiction, making them less likely to relapse when faced with stressful situations like job loss or financial difficulties.
- Eating Right. Eating healthy foods improves your mental health, boosts your energy levels, and helps you feel happier overall.
Attend Therapy
Therapy helps you recognize the underlying cause of your addiction, which is often related to trauma or past experiences. Therapy helps you work through these issues to make healthier choices.
A therapist will work with you to identify triggers that cause you to engage in addictive behaviors and how these behaviors affect your relationships, health, and overall well-being. The goal of therapy is not necessarily to stop your substance abuse completely but help you learn how to manage it healthily so that it doesn’t interfere with other aspects of your life or relationships with others.
Practice Healthy Habits
Your brain controls everything from breathing to digestion, remembering a phone number, and falling asleep at night. Your brain works better when you practice healthy habits, such as exercise and eating right. You have more energy and focus, which makes it easier for you to quit an addiction.
Here are tips for creating good habits:
- Start small. Don’t try to change all your bad habits at once. Instead, pick one bad habit that bothers you the most and work on that one first. Once you’ve mastered that habit change, move on to another one.
- Set realistic goals. Don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to achieve too much too soon. Instead, set small goals that are easy to achieve and will make you feel good when they’re done (like exercising three times per week). Once those goals become second nature, move on to bigger ones!
- Get rid of things that remind you of drugs or alcohol (e.g., old drug paraphernalia). It may seem like an obvious step, but many people keep reminders around because they feel guilty about using drugs or alcohol in the past or because they feel too depressed about their lives without them.
In addiction treatment, the traditional method of supplying a patient with drugs or alcohol has gotten replaced with a much healthier approach. You don’t need to supply addictive substances to the person addicted to cocaine, heroin, or alcohol; instead, there is extensive therapy and counseling. The addicts work through their issues and learn how to associate their cravings with healthier activities. When they leave treatment, they are prepared to cope independently and resist the temptation to revert to drinking or taking drugs.
