Addiction affects every area of life. Hitting rock bottom often involves finding yourself out of money, out of friends, and knocking on death’s door. Losing everything for the sake of an addiction is often exactly what brings people into treatment, allowing them to start picking up the pieces in recovery and rebuilding each aspect of life that their alcohol or drug abuse shattered.
Decide What Recovery Means to You
Ultimately, the recovery process is a journey each person defines and owns for themselves. For some, recovery may reduce or replace substance use; for others, it may be cutting all substances out entirely. However, the goal of every recovery process is to take the reins of your life away from drugs or alcohol and put them in capable hands.
How you define your recovery process will dictate your treatment plan. Do you replace heroin with Suboxone or cut opioids out completely? Do you reduce alcohol use or stay dry for the rest of your life? These things heavily depend on your attitude, goals, history, health, and support network. The only person who can really decide what the recovery process looks like is you.
Rebuild What Was Lost
Understanding how much addiction affects your life is the first step to rebuilding relationships, healthy habits, and better life skills. Don’t give into despair—these things are lost, not necessarily destroyed or ruined. Your addictive behaviors got you to where you are, and healthy, humble, and restorative behaviors will get you out.
Health
Often, the most immediate and severe consequence of substance abuse is the toll it takes on your body. Depending on the substance, getting treatment and starting to recover can be a matter of life and death. Many people going through addiction cycles find themselves in and out of the hospital for surgeries, medications, and short-term solutions to the health problems caused by addiction.
However, these are only band-aids rather than long-term fixes. Getting a donor’s will to replace a liver diseased from alcohol abuse will waste a valuable organ unless the person radically changes their lifestyle and cuts alcohol out entirely. Recovery begins with a change in mindset, and you need to want to get better before you can hope to see a lasting difference in your life.
Relationships (Family and Friends)
While you may have saved your life by getting sober, you likely left significant destruction in your wake as you pursued your addiction. It’s rare to see a case where a person’s substance abuse didn’t affect their friends and family. Even if their loved ones don’t know the real issues, they are still hurt by the changes in attitude and priorities that come with addiction.
Because of this, a major part of the traditional 12 steps of recovery involves making amends with those you’ve affected through substance abuse. Theft, lying, and neglect, as well as verbal, emotional, or even physical abuse, are not uncommon in these situations, and there is no way to effectively move forward in recovery without addressing this and attempting to start to make things right with the people around you.
No one is saying it will be simple, easy, or even successful. Openly admitting your worst behaviors to those closest to you is intimidating, and some people may not be able to find forgiveness, and that will have to be OK. The point is that you are trying to rebuild relationships and burned bridges by communicating genuine apologies for your actions. You can’t go through recovery alone, and having a strong network of supportive friends and family goes a long way.
Finances
One aspect of life that addiction often significantly affects is your financial health. Drugs and alcohol cost money, and regular hospital bills for overdoses or the health complications we mentioned cost even more. Many who struggle with addiction often live paycheck to paycheck, spending most of their money on getting drunk or high and not knowing (or caring) how they’ll make rent that month.
Financial responsibility is a life skill that is vital to success in recovery. Taking care of your money helps avoid stressful situations caused by a lack of funds, which can reduce a common relapse trigger. Maintaining good financial health is a keystone habit that can have a ripple effect on other areas of life you never considered. You might find that, after managing your finances, you can afford healthier foods, which, in turn, improves your overall health, energy, fitness, and mental health. Doing this well can also improve your self-esteem and give you confidence.
Focusing on your finances can take many forms and may require an accountability partner. You can start an emergency fund, divvy up your paycheck into essential areas such as rent and groceries, consolidate and pay down any debt, and even open a retirement account. It all depends on your situation and is best handled with the help of a financial expert.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Should I Date While in Early Recovery?
The only person who can truly answer that question is you. However, the first few weeks and even months of recovery is a vital stage in the healing process as a whole. It’s a period of intense emotions, mood swings, cravings, therapy, drama with family and friends, and even physical withdrawal symptoms. With that in mind, you may not be in the best state of mind to begin a new relationship, especially with someone who is also in early recovery.
If you are in a dating relationship, it’s usually best to be transparent with the other person and allow them to support your recovery process based on the recommendations of your clinical therapist. It could be that your relationships are what is fueling your addiction, and it may be best to gain distance from them in these cases.
What Support Groups Are Available to Me?
When it comes to recovery, there is no real substitute for treatment at an accredited facility. Certain substances cause drastic changes to the mind and body, making even stopping cold turkey dangerous. Going to a location separated from everyday life to get your mind and your body rebalanced before engaging in therapy is a vital first step.
That being said, uprooting your life for weeks to go to treatment may seem intimidating. While it’s far better than reaching rock bottom again, the recovery process can start with just admitting to a stranger that you need help. Most cities have chapters of organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, and there are also local online communities of people with a desire to get and stay sober, allowing people to voice their fears and goals alongside others going through similar experiences.
What Are the Stages of Recovery?
The five stages of addiction recovery are a part of what’s called the transtheoretical model, an approach to treatment that considers the individuality of each person on their journey toward sobriety. The stages of this model are:
- Precontemplation. In this stage, the individual isn’t willing to consider a change in lifestyle or mindset.
- Contemplation. Now, they are considering making changes to improve their lives.
- Preparation. This stage is characterized by building urgency, intentionality, and a desire to take action.
- Action. During this phase, the individual takes the necessary steps to stop substance use, such as therapy, abstinence, or treatment.
- Maintenance. Having regained control over their life, the individual in this stage engages in regular habits to prevent relapse.
