When Life Gives You Lemons in Alcohol Addiction Recovery…
Individuals with an addiction to alcohol know what to do when times get tough. It’s as simple as reaching for the bottle to drown your sorrows away until consciousness and reality reappear in the morning. Addicted individuals use their drug of choice to run from emotions and consequences of their actions. Because of this, individuals in alcohol addiction recovery lack the skills needed to handle difficult situations once they stop drinking. It takes time, dedication, and effort to learn and apply how to handle what life throws your way while you are also trying to maintain a life of sobriety. Fortunately, many people have been successful in discovering how to both maintain a life of sobriety and handle life’s lemons, and they attest to a few helpful tips.
Discover Yourself throughout Alcohol Addiction Recovery
Since alcohol allows for the escape from real emotions, have you really been yourself throughout active addiction? Now’s your chance to find out. No, recovery is not always going to be fun, but now that you can’t numb the pain with your drug of choice, you will have a chance to find out who you are without it. First and foremost, when life hands you lemons, don’t run.
Experience the emotions that you have been avoiding for so long. No life is free from difficulty, and not everyone handles the tough times with the help of a crutch. Experiencing real emotions during times of struggle and hardship throughout alcohol addiction recovery will allow you to handle them better the next time. It is human to cry when pain is felt; to yell when anger is billowing at the seam. Allowing yourself to feel even the negative emotions will bring you closer to humanity, understanding, and inevitably yourself.
Remind Yourself of What you are Grateful For
You are likely to run into moments that you feel uncomfortable, lonely, angry, or even hopeless during alcohol addiction recovery. These are great moments to remind yourself of what you are grateful for. This simple task can help put into perspective what is really going on in your life. Even if it seems that you have nothing to be grateful for, you still have your sobriety. You are still living each day trying to better yourself and you are still alive.
Be Present During Alcohol Addiction Recovery
Everyone’s heard the common recovery saying, “Take it one day at a time”. This refers to being present. Recovering individuals especially tend to carry guilt from the decisions they have made throughout their days of active addiction. Struggles come and go, but worrying about things that have happened in the past or becoming anxious over things you cannot control in the future won’t do any good. It will only cause further despair and prevent healing. Instead, handle struggles as they arise. This will allow you to not become overwhelmed and deal with things a step at a time. Practice being present through meditation techniques. Meditation encourages peace of mind and self-awareness, which aids in becoming more aware of the present moment.
Work Out Those Negative Emotions
When stress builds as a consequence of life’s struggles, it needs an outlet. Exercising is not only a great way to maintain health and look great; it can help you feel great too. Working out helps to release built up stress and also increases the production of natural feel-good chemicals in the brain. Replace those negative emotions with exercise-induced happiness. Instead of reaching for a drink that leads to a number of consequences, reach for your gym bag and burn it off!
Remember Other Hardships
When life is throwing its biggest and most sour lemons at you, remind yourself that you are still standing. You have had many hardships before standing in the exact spot you are in, and you are still breathing. Remember how you felt before getting treatment for your addiction. Maybe you felt that your world was ending. Maybe you felt that you would never be happy again. But, you’ve overcome it; you’ve put the bottle down. If you can overcome the hardship of addiction, you can overcome whatever else life sends your way. Deciding to drink and throw that sobriety away only sets you back further and provides you with even more problems. Life’s struggles do not have to be the end of you. In fact, they can be a learning experience. If you embrace these hardships as such, they will eventually, over time, show themselves as blessings.
Above all, remember that the struggles that you encounter throughout your life are normal. They are human encounters intended to mold you into the person that you are meant to be. Use them as a reason to know yourself, as a reason to do better. Stay strong and you will eventually be thankful for your sobriety, your health, and even your struggles.