Excessive alcohol consumption or illegal substance abuse are actions that can turn the life of an individual upside down, regardless of their relationship status, job position or age. Once you develop an actual addiction, many areas in your life will have to suffer, and both your physical and mental health will be affected. The reason why so many addicts aren’t able to get their life back on track isn’t that they don’t acknowledge the seriousness of the issue they are confronted with, but due to the inability to adopt the right practices towards healing and recovery. 

If you have reached the point where you no longer want to let your addiction tendencies control your life, getting advice on the best approach toward complete detoxification is necessary. While there are many things you are able to do, some working better than others, the following actions remain the most promising ones in the majority of cases. Here’s how you should handle things from this point on: 

Start by cutting out people from your life, who don’t exactly have your best interest in mind. An addictive behaviour can often be triggered by bad influences from toxic people. Once you develop a drinking or drug problem, your group of “friends” tends to change and you start to surround yourself with people who have the same “guilty pleasures” as you. Reaching sobriety will not be possible, or it will be much more difficult if you continue to spend time with those who haven’t reached the milestones you have and might constantly tempt you to fall back into your own ways. As difficult as it may be, put an end to any friendship with those who are still living a destructive lifestyle. 

Guilt is something any addict experiences at some point. Before being able to ask for help, and actually doing something about the situation you are in, it’s important to stop masking guilt with justifications. Putting a stop to denial, idealization, problem minimization, or wrongful rationalization is essential if you want to achieve results. While letting yourself feel guilty is certainly not pleasant, it can be a strong motivator in your recovery journey. 

One of the least pleasant decisions you will need to make is enrolling in a rehab program, but this remains a critical step in your healing process. Without professional help and the right techniques to combat addiction, the odds of actually reaching successful results are slim ones. A great rehabilitation program incorporates all the instruments necessary to reach sobriety, in a timely and healthy manner. However, what you need to remember here is not all rehab centres available might make a suitable choice for you personally. This is a choice that you need to make based on research. Look into the options you have available, compare services, check program specifics and select a facility that actually has positive feedback from recovering addicts. The symptoms you will experience during withdrawal, for example, can be overwhelming to deal with, depending on the exact severity of your addiction, so going through this process in a centre that uses adequate resources and methods to ease the transition can make quite the difference. 

Help4addiction.co.uk underlines the aspects that you should focus on when you are trying to decide on a rehab facility.

 

Completing a rehabilitation program won’t be sufficient to declare yourself fully healed or recovered. The repercussions your past experiences linked to addiction have had on your mental health might not be observed immediately and they will continue to affect your life if not discovered and addressed correctly. This is why you should be open to communication, and that means more than just talking about your problem with your friends and family. While sharing your thoughts and feeling with those you love can matter, you are also recommended to find a suitable environment in which you can actually receive appropriate support. Seeing a therapist can do wonder here. They will be able to help you overcome the mental health issues that you have developed, as well as find the main causes that have led to your addiction in the first place. 

Focus on values and principles that fight against addiction. Consciousness, always being aware of your surroundings and life experiences can have a role here. So does eating well, exercising and staying on top of health care. Self-respect, a sense of responsibility and being more involved in the community are usually values that contribute to addiction recovery success. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a week or 4 months since you have reached sobriety, cravings will still exist, and although they might fade away over time, the process will be slower than you would actually want it to be. Although willpower, anti-addiction values and a strong mind-set are the things that will prevent a relapse, it’s always beneficial to fill your life with activities that make you less prone to experiencing temptation. An active lifestyle is critical here. This doesn’t mean you should focus all of your time and attention on your job, and overwork yourself, but rather obtain a balance and pursue new habits. Exercise, travel, spend time with close friends and family and do other things that can ensure a state of wellness and happiness.  

These are the things that you should prioritize once you notice you have developed a problem with either alcohol or drugs. If left unattended, these tendencies can only worsen, leading to a negative effect on your general quality of life. Restoring balance and adopting a healthy way of living doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming, you only need to adopt a few practices that can help you overcome this unpleasant period in your life. Use the suggestion above to your advantage, and the improvement experienced can actually bring mental and physical stability.