People who have turned to substances to cope have often done so as a result of going through something that exceeded their ability to manage. Navigating something truly traumatic can leave us feeling broken, lost, and desperate for anything that will ease our suffering. Alcohol and drugs may be the solution a person finds when they don’t have the resilience to bounce back. At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, in Portsmouth, Virginia, we treat people who are fighting addiction, and give them to tools to become more resilient.
What Is Resilience?
When you stretch a rubber band, it can either return to its original shape, stay stretched out, or snap in two. Being resilient means that you can get through really tough things without it breaking you or changing you for the worse. Some people are more naturally resilient, but this is also something a person can learn and build.
What Breaks Down Resilience?
Just like a rubber band can grow less stretchy over time, some things can make it harder for you to bounce back:
- Going through trauma without adequate support, such as abuse, the sudden end of an important relationship due to death, divorce, foster care placement, etc., natural disasters, war, physical illness or injuries, witnessing violence, car accidents, terrorism, or growing up with a parent who was mentally ill or had substance use problems
- Having unrecognized or untreated mental health struggles
- Not having a healthy support system
- Feeling like your life was in danger when you went through something traumatic
- Already being stressed when something painful happened to you
What Builds Resilience?
A lot of resilience has to do with how you perceive yourself. You will be more able to bounce back if you believe that you believe yourself to have the 7 Cs:
- Competence: the ability to do hard things
- Confidence: knowing you are strong
- Connection: being able to lean on people who care about you for support
- Character: values and beliefs that you are true to at all times
- Contribution: making a difference in the world around you
- Coping: being able to manage stress
- Control: knowing that your choices impact what happens to you
How Can I Become More Resilient?
If you struggle with bouncing back from life’s challenges, remember that this doesn’t make you a bad or weak person. It may just mean that you have never been taught the skills to navigate difficulty in healthy ways. Building up your resources and skills will make you more resilient:
- Surround yourself with supportive family and friends and cut out people who cut you down or don’t support your recovery. If you don’t have a good natural support system, you can start to build one from people you meet in your recovery journey, your faith community, or through shared interests.
- Reach out for professional support when you are struggling with grief, trauma, or mental health struggles.
- Spend time with other people who have overcome the struggles you’re facing, so that you can learn from them and gain hope from their successes.
- Stay physically active, to help your mind and body process stress more effectively.
- Prioritize your self-care routine, including sleep, nutrition, leisure, and spiritual practices. Pushing yourself too hard, ignoring your basic needs, and giving your body fuel that isn’t ideal for its functioning will make it more difficult for you to recover from challenges.
- Do things that validate your sense of accomplishment, like volunteering, caring for other people, and having a job that you find fulfilling.
- Implement a structure and routine that will allow you to reduce decision fatigue and maintain normalcy during times of high stress. Something as simple as starting your day off with meditation or ending your night with journaling may only take a few minutes, but it can have a big impact.
- Practice mindfulness strategies like yoga, meditation, and deep breathing. There are free videos online that can help you get started.
- Learn to break down big, intimidating tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces, so that you don’t become overwhelmed.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, we know that when our clients build their resilience, they are increasing their chances for sustaining long-term recovery. Our team offers trauma-informed, evidence-based care that is individualized to meet the needs of each person we serve.