I Need Some Stress Management Techniques Without Drugs

Without drugs or alcohol, life can become very difficult. This is completely normal in the early stages of recovery. You have to realize that you were most likely drinking or using drugs as unhealthy stress management techniques. When you get sober, stress doesn’t magically go away, so it’s important to learn new techniques to help manage stress. The beautiful part about getting sober is learning how to deal with life on life’s terms while having freedom from drugs or alcohol.

To successfully deal with drug and alcohol addiction, individuals need counseling and therapies addressing their specific needs. At Beaches Recovery, we offer a broad range of addiction treatment programs and mental health therapy so individuals can have their issues dealt with. We understand that recovery is possible for everyone with access to the right resources.

Why Stress Management Techniques are Necessary

As sure as the sun will rise each morning, you are bound to experience stress in your recovery from addiction. It’s important to discuss this while you’re in treatment or before you get sober, so you set proper expectations about staying sober. Some people have this idea that sobriety means nothing stressful will ever happen again. This is a very dangerous situation because without being proactive, stress arises and can lead to a relapse.

Stress is often the most common type of trigger individuals in recovery need to confront. Whether in the form of social, financial, or professional stress, it can lead individuals to turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, leading to severe issues. Common forms of stress:

• Intimate relationships
• Family
• Friends
• Work
• Money

All of the reasons listed above are exactly why you need to learn healthy stress management techniques during treatment. The incredible part about addiction recovery is discovering that you’re learning some techniques many people don’t have. Many people look back and think about how fortunate they are to have gone through addiction because of this fact. This concept may sound crazy to you now, but with some clean time, you may find this to be true as well.

Mindfulness Stress Management Techniques

You may have already heard of mindfulness because it’s gained a lot of notice in the last couple of decades in the media.  Mindfulness-based treatment is a technique that’s been used for thousands of years as a way to manage your thoughts. The amazing part about mindfulness is that you’re simply training your brain in skills it already has. Simply put, mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment. It’s a form of addiction treatment that has been proven effective.

The brain’s instinct is to go towards pleasure and run away from pain, but this is very bad for stress. When feeding into this natural reaction to avoid stress, you’re increasing stress hormones. By using mindfulness, you train your brain to embrace the feeling of stress in a non-judgmental way. With practice, you begin to see that stress is just a body sensation that is neither good nor bad.

Recreational Therapy for Stress Management Techniques

While you’re in treatment, you may not realize it, but every aspect of treatment and therapy provided helps you overcome your issues. Sometimes people see that different activities like exercise, hiking, and swimming are used in rehabs and wonder how it helps. The body has natural ways of relieving stress with different chemicals that it produces called endorphins. Treatment options may help you find various activities that show you there are better, healthier ways of relieving stress. Experiential therapy is one way.

Beaches Recovery is a facility that uses behavioral therapy and physical activities to help you with stress. If you’re ready to overcome stress as well as your addiction, call us today at 866.605.0532.