You may have seen social media influencers posting videos of shopping sprees, spa days, and lavish dinners and calling it self-care. While indulgences like those can qualify as self-care, there is far more to this important practice than the Kardashians of the world might have you believe. September is National Self-Care Awareness Month, and Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, wants to shed some light onto some of the more practical, inexpensive ways self-care can be applied to a person’s daily life.
What Self-Care Means
Self-care refers to the habits, routines and activities a person can do to promote the various aspects of their own well-being. Just like you have to maintain a car and prevent breakdowns by changing the oil, rotating the tires, and regularly filling the gas tank, you also need to look after your own personal maintenance to avoid burnout and relapses. Because each individual is unique from the next, this means that their self-care will also potentially look different. Some activities that are often utilized as self-care include:
- Emotional self-care
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- Participating in therapy
- Joining support groups in-person or online
- Journaling
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- Mental self-care
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- Reading for fun or to learn something new
- Doing an arts and crafts project
- Gardening
- Listening to music or a podcast
- Getting some sunshine and fresh air to boost your mood
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- Physical self-care
- Social self-care
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- Spending time with family and friends
- Volunteering with a cause you find important
- Joining a club or community organization
- Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries
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- Church or religious fellowship
- Prayer and/or meditation
- Reading spiritual texts
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- Financial self-care
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- Budgeting
- Paying bills
- Contributing to a retirement account
How Self-Care Promotes Recovery
Self-care is important to everyone, but it is especially crucial for people who are in recovery to maintain a solid self-care routine to reduce their risk of relapse. Self-care sustains recovery by:
- Reducing stress
- Increasing a person’s sense of well-being
- Providing a sense of accomplishment
- Improving several domains of health
- Building healthier relationships
Self-Care and Relapse
Relapse is not just the moment when a person ingests their drug of choice. It is a process that can occur over weeks and months. The sooner a person identifies that they are relapsing, the easier it is to take corrective action and return to recovery. Relapses happen in stages:
- Emotional relapse – the person bottles up their feelings, isolates from their support system, stops attending meetings or shows up but doesn’t fully participate, and neglects their own basic needs.
- Mental relapse – the person may have mixed feelings about using, with part of them wanting to stay sober and part of them wanting to use. They start to have cravings, reminisce about past substance use, bargain, and lie, while looking for opportunities to relapse.
- Physical relapse – this is when the person starts to use again.
When you compare the list of self-care activities against what happens in relapse, it is pretty easy to see how the two are nearly opposites. Practicing consistent self-care makes it much harder for relapse to occur.
Signs You Need to Perform More Self-Care
Though self-care needs vary from person to person, look for signals that you need more self-care in your life. HALT is an acronym that is often used in the recovery community to describe some things that can cause people to become dysregulated:
- Hungry – Hunger can lead to a drop in blood sugar, irritability, and impulsive behavior.
- Angry – If you’re not addressing your feelings or managing your stress, you might start feeling extra grouchy.
- Lonely – If you’re not spending enough time connecting with other people, you might notice an increased sense of loneliness.
- Tired – If you are not getting enough sleep or you are pushing yourself too hard in one or more areas of your life, you may feel more fatigued than usual, which can lead to poor decision-making.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, we want our patients to have the tools to sustain long-term recovery. Our experienced clinical staff provide holistic, evidence-based treatment to promote healing in the minds, bodies, and spirits of our guests.