It’s long been said that recovery is a lifelong process and while it may feel or sound cliché, it’s undeniably true. You’ve done the immensely challenging work of getting clean; the detox, the inpatient treatment, group therapy, spoken with counselors, yoga, etc. You’ve done some or all of it and more and that alone is absolutely cause for celebration.
The long journey may have been difficult, but it was guided and there was comfort in the warm embrace of a deeply caring environment. In your time in treatment, you learned to not underestimate the power of addiction and while you fully grasped and understood that it’s an ongoing part of your life, now that you’ve “graduated” back into that daily life it can all feel overwhelming. That despite the best-laid plans.
Where do you even begin after rehab?
Make and Stick to Your Plan
In all likelihood, you created a plan towards the end of your rehab program to help set you up for long-term success in sobriety.
The likelihood of staying clean increases massively if you have a plan of continued action to follow. That may include things like continued one-on-one therapy or counseling, a medication regimen, check-ups to ensure progress.
The key now is to hold yourself accountable to it. Whatever the plan is, whatever appointments you’ve made for, it’s imperative to stick with them.
Get Into a Support Group
Aside from friends and family, a support group of like-minded people who share the experience of addiction and recovery can work wonders. Chats about hardship with your close confidants are great but coming together to discuss issues with people who really understand what you’ve gone through are indispensable.
There are many to choose from but the most well-known method is via a 12-step program which includes Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous for example. If you’re looking for something different than the 12-step approach, SMART Recovery (self-management and recovery training) is a popular option.
There’s a whole world of support groups that align with the values, needs and wants of every individual. Finding the right one for you just takes a bit of research.
Make New (Sober) Friends
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to start from scratch and build an entirely new friendship circle but you do need to break it off with any drug and alcohol using pals. Dropping yourself back into the mix with folks that have carried on with the same life of using, is setting yourself up for relapse. Ideally, you’ll have made some newly sober pals throughout rehab but if your recovery plan includes any type of group work you can build friendships there.
The idea is to try to surround yourself with people who won’t influence you adversely and who will actively share in or encourage your sobriety goals. They will also be able to introduce you to new, sober activities to do after rehab
Help Others
This is a powerful way to spread the love, helping other people helps the giver as much as the receiver. In addition to being a way to further share and grow from common experiences, helping others serves as a way to hold yourself personally accountable. It reminds you how far you’ve come and ushering someone down that same path boosts their self-esteem and yours.
It’s a supremely rewarding post-rehab activity if you can handle it.
We’re Here to Help After Drug and Alcohol Rehab
No matter which route you choose, you control your destiny with respect to what happens to your life after rehab. You’ve certainly been equipped with many tools to succeed but it’s not enough to sit back and relax. Sobriety is something that needs to be constantly tended to and worked on. At Principles Recovery Center in Davie, Florida we recognize the importance of aftercare in your long term success and offer a wide array of options to suit your individual needs. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help you with what to do after rehab.
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