How Resilience Plays a Role in Addiction Recovery
Resiliency allows people to step back briefly, regroup and move forward. No matter how long you stay away from harmful substances, there may be some unexpected surprises. While these surprises can lead to stress, they do not have to result in a return to using if you have developed some useful emotional wellness tools.
Some of the ways to build resilience in recovery include:
- Learn from the past:Experience is an amazing teacher. Use your insight to look back at how you handled past situations either successfully or poorly. Let this guide your future behavior. Also,do not forget all of the triumphsin addiction recovery that you have experienced.
- Accept that change will happen: Change can be difficult, but it is inevitable in life. Resiliency involves being able to more quickly adapt to changing conditions.
- Have a support system: People are usually stronger in numbers. You can develop a support system and use it to help you get through difficult times. You might find that you can handle anything when this group has your back.
- Emphasize self-care: Skimping on self-care in the midst of a crisis would be a mistake. In recovery, you can learn to take care of your own needs first by eating and sleeping right and building resilience through such things as meditation and exercise.
Be grateful: Instead of focusing on something stressful, remember everything that is wonderful about your life now. Make it a daily practice to create a gratitude list.