If you’re ready to end your relationship with an addictive substance, you might be looking for ways to improve your chances of success. You might even have attempted this in the past and been unsuccessful for one reason or another. The following will explore a few things that you might want to keep in mind if you’re about to end your use of a substance or behavior that is harming you.
Research
Whenever you’re about to do something new, uncertain, or difficult, it’s a good idea to do some research. Knowing what you can expect and what tends to help people make it through difficulties or surprises can help you stay calm and focus on the long-term benefits of the work you’re doing. Knowing about all the possibilities can help lessen your sense that the process has to look a certain way to be effective. As well, knowing the details about how your health and wellbeing are being negatively affected by addiction can help you stay motivated when recovery feels stagnant. A professional can also outline what different treatment plans typically look like and what you can expect to encounter in each.
Get A Health Check Up
You might also want to enter into a treatment plan with an awareness of your current health scenario. Different addictions impact different areas of the body; you might have blood pressure issues to look out for or liver issues to consider. Nutritional support or physical health support might need to be part of your treatment plan depending on what damage if any, has been done to your body.
Find The Right Treatment Plan For You
Every person with an addiction is a fully-fledged individual with a complex history. Your addiction hasn’t occurred in a vacuum but rather has grown and developed within a context. This means that the right treatment plan is going to take into account this context and help you not only safely and healthily end your relationship with the substance or behavior that you’re struggling with but also help you build a life that feels secure and provides you with the things you need so that you don’t need to seek harmful outlets for getting your needs met. Speaking to a professional about the options available to you can be incredibly helpful in this regard.
Know Thyself
This can be a particularly difficult step if you’ve been living in cycles of addiction for a large chunk of time, but knowing yourself and knowing what your triggers are and what has kept you from ending a relationship with a substance or behavior in the past can be incredibly beneficial. If there are particular pitfalls that often trip you up—let’s say visiting with your family or really difficult projects at work—you might want to schedule recovery and treatment time away from these triggers. A professional can help you with learning to recognize and avoid your triggers.
Enter Rehab Prepared
If you’ve decided to enter a rehabilitation facility as part of your treatment plan, you’ll likely be given a list of things to bring and things not to bring. If not, you can find a sample of common standards on this site. It’s important to remember that in some facilities, multiple different addictions are being treated. This means that a particular item might not have an impact on your recovery but might negatively influence someone else’s. Someone being treated for alcoholism, for instance, might enjoy reading tabloid magazines, but someone who is trying to end their relationship with disordered eating might find the images of thin celebrities incredibly triggering. Be respectful of your facility’s requirements for this reason. You don’t want to slow someone else’s progress by accident.
Be Open To The Internal Work
Again, addictions don’t occur in vacuums. A huge component of successful, long-term recovery involves understanding what needs you had as a child or teen that weren’t met, what needs you had as a young adult that wasn’t met, and what needs you currently have that aren’t being met. Delving into these ideas can be incredibly painful, particularly if they involve caregivers, teachers, friends, or romantic partners that caused harm or neglected you. Addressing trauma can involve revisiting difficult moments from the past; it can also involve a slog of combatting unhelpful thought patterns each and every time they arrive. Most treatment plans will involve some degree of counseling or therapy.
The above information should help you enter into the treatment and recovery stages of dealing with an addiction aware and prepared. Having appropriate expectations, knowing what you need (physically, mentally, or emotionally), and understanding the process can all benefit you during and after treatment.
