Congratulations! You’ve completed your time in an addiction treatment program and are embarking on the early weeks of recovery. Hopefully, you’re using the skills you learned in rehab to navigate the challenges of sustaining sobriety at work and at home. You’re probably aware that this beginning stage of your recovery is a little precarious. Cravings may hit hard and when you least expect it. You’re still new at learning how to manage stress without using substances as a buffer. What else could complicate this crucial period in your life?
Let’s look at some things to be prepared for in early recovery, and how to handle them when/if they arise.
Emotional Ups and Downs
Even if everything about your home and work environment is ideal, early recovery can still pose challenges as your brain and body adjust to life without substances. You might notice changes in moods; some people might go through a time of sadness or emptiness as the brain works to accommodate lower dopamine levels. Others might experience an extended time of optimism and confidence, feeling invincible as they enjoy a clear mind and greater energy.
Any extreme mood, whether sadness or joy, can trigger cravings. Moods that hover in the middle, neither sad nor happy, can also trigger cravings. Boredom can trigger cravings. See a pattern here? Your emotional life can take you on a roller coaster ride unless you learn how to step back, watch what’s happening, and make conscious choices about what to do next.
Emotional regulation takes practice, and a therapist can offer techniques that cater to your unique personality and needs. Therapy can also help you uncover patterns in your emotional reactions to situations and events; then, you can take steps to change the patterns so that you feel more in control.
Other ways to detach from and calm the emotions include:
- Meditation
- Urge surfing
- Journaling
- Exercise
Delayed Withdrawal Symptoms
While you’ve already been through the intense part of withdrawal, those first days in detox that made you swear to never do this to yourself again, you may have more withdrawal symptoms to endure as the body continues to heal. Symptoms of post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) can ebb and flow for up to two years after you’ve stopped using drugs or alcohol. PAWS symptoms include both physical and mental complications and vary depending on the substance you’re in recovery from. Here are just a few of the symptoms a PAWS flare-up may bring on:
- Anxiety and/or depression
- Cravings
- Insomnia
- Unexplained chronic pain
- Muscle cramps
- Low libido
- Irritability
- Fatigue
The best way to deal with PAWS is the same as the best way to deal with anything in recovery: sustained commitment to sobriety, recovery support groups, and therapy. Your doctor may also be able to offer some relief from the physical symptoms, such as antidepressants or non-addictive sleep aids.
Strained Relationships
As you’re well aware, addiction breaks down relationships. Trust is often broken between loved ones, and family and friends may harbor anger and resentment. Coming home after addiction treatment is an opportunity for healing these relationships. At the same time, new strains on your closest relationships may arise. After all, you’re not the same person now that you were before you entered recovery. And while you’re probably a little better at communicating, listening, taking responsibility, and keeping promises, you also need to do whatever is necessary to stay committed to your recovery plan. This may mean restructuring your routine in ways that upset someone in your household.
For example, you may need to:
- Quit a job or career that causes you undue stress, thus putting some financial pressure on the household until you can find a better situation.
- Spend a significant amount of time doing recovery-related activities, like attending AA or NA meetings, seeing a therapist, exercising, having time to yourself for reflection, etc.
- Avoid certain functions or places that your family or friends go to because the temptation to drink or use drugs is too strong.
These big life changes that are often necessary in recovery can cause tension in the home. Family or couples therapy is an excellent way to address this tension.
Awkward Conversations
Coworkers, extended family, neighbors, and casual acquaintances might be full of questions about why you were away for so long. They may offer unsolicited advice about recovery (even if they’ve never suffered from addiction). The best way to deal with these conversations is to:
- Anticipate them
- Plan how you will respond – the full story, a nod and a smile, or something in-between?
- Remember that you don’t owe anyone information about yourself that you’d rather keep private
Consider, too, the opportunity that you have now to help others who might be suffering from addiction and feeling scared of the recovery process. Your story can help save a life.
Clarity! Energy!
In case you were getting discouraged by the list of potential roadblocks, let’s take a moment to remember how great sobriety can feel and why it’s worth the challenges:
- You wake up with a clear head
- You have more energy
- You remember the fun times you have with family and friends – no more blackouts!
- You gain a new appreciation for nourishing food
- You get stronger physically because you have more energy to take care of yourself
- You have the capacity to assess what you really want in life and the energy to go for it
New Friends & Sober Fun
While recovery may mean distancing yourself from the friends or family members who do not understand your commitment and continue to invite you to use substances with them or to use them in front of you, recovery is also a time of meeting new people who love and support you.
You can meet these new friends by attending recovery-based support or social groups. You can meet them through your treatment center’s alumni program. You can meet them anywhere that attracts people committed to a healthy lifestyle. A few good, sober friends can help you through any challenge–and you can help them, too.
Get Your Recovery Started At Northern Path Recovery Center
Our team in Fort Wayne, IN, would love to meet you and help you find the freedom and satisfaction that are waiting for you on the other side of addiction. Contact us today to learn how to get started.
