Stress is an unfortunate part of life for everyone. For people in recovery, however, managing it effectively can be the difference between staying sober and having a relapse. Because relapses can be very dangerous, at Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, we like to reduce the likelihood of our clients experiencing them.
How Stress Impacts Recovery
When a person is stressed, they are more likely to make impulsive decisions that address an immediate problem, but don’t serve their long-term best interests. By managing stress effectively, a person allows themselves the opportunity to make better choices.
Improving Stress Management
Many people who have developed addictions have done so as a way to cope. They may not have had the chance to learn healthy coping skills when they were growing up, and turned to substances because they were a readily available tool for managing feelings and stress. In recovery, it is important that people develop their coping skills so that they have alternatives to substances. One way to do this is to attend talk therapy.
There are many different types of therapy, but some of the modalities that are most helpful to a person in recovery, who wants to develop their coping skills, are:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Contingency management
- Motivational enhancement therapy
- Family therapy
- Twelve-step facilitation
Self-Care to Manage Stress
One of the terms people entering recovery hear a lot is “self-care”. Self-care is all of the things a person does in order to look after themselves and stay healthy. While social media influencers sometimes use the phrase to talk about things like spa days and shopping sprees, the truth is that self-care is often far less glamorous. For a person in recovery, self-care usually looks like:
- Healthy routines. Setting up a predictable pattern for your days reduces how many decisions you have to make and gives your mind more bandwidth for handling unavoidable stressors.
- Exercise. Working out is not only a good distraction from stress, but it actually helps us to feel less stressed by triggering our brains to release chemicals that replicate stress during our workout, but then leaves us feeling more relaxed after the workout is done.
- Making time for a spiritual life. Whether it’s going to church, meditating, spending time in nature, joining a bible study, or something else, nurturing your spirit is an important part of maintaining your peace.
- Prioritizing sleep. Sleep is how our brain recovers from everything it has to do in a day. Good rest is a big part of effective stress management. To get the best possible sleep, be sure to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, reserve your bed for sleep only, avoid taking naps, especially late in the day, sleep in a quiet, dark, cool room, and put away your electronic devices an hour or two before you want to fall asleep
- Attending support groups. Other people in recovery are more likely to understand the struggles you’re facing and to help you identify red flags you might be missing or ignoring. Make time to attend meetings regularly.
- Choosing a sponsor and maintaining contact. Your sponsor is someone you chose because they have more recovery experience and knowledge than you. If you’re feeling stressed, they might have some important information that you can use to correct course in your current activities.
- Setting boundaries. Identify who the people are who increase your stress and set some limits around your interactions with them.
- Having goals. When you’re able to accomplish things, you feel better about yourself and more capable of managing whatever comes your way. Having goals that are clear, measurable, and realistic allows you to reinforce that you are accomplishing what you set out to do.
- Taking a break. If you find that you’re still stressed out, give yourself time to breathe. Remove yourself from the situation and regroup before you try to move forward.
- Don’t be hangry. Eating healthy, well-balanced meals will allow your brain to do its best work, and having some snacks on hand will help you to feel less stressed and more energized.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, we believe that recovery is a lifelong process that requires ongoing work and learning. We encourage our clients to build a recovery toolbox that allows them to continue developing new strategies even after they complete our program.