Meetings such as peer support program help recovering adults avoid relapse. While allowing them to enjoy socializing at the same time. Meetings allow one to feel they not alone and can often give encouragement to sustain recovery.
It can be stressful enough that alcoholic beverages are seemingly inextricable part of holiday celebrations but feeling forced to interact with family, friends, or even coworkers can be a major source of anxiety. Make sure you seek help as well in fighting temptation
Celebrate Stress-free Holidays
Announcing annual recovery strategies roadmap. A recent survey showed more than half of participants experienced heightened levels of stress during holidays.
DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, December 14, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ —
WeLevelUp Clinical Specialists Announce Annual Recovery Strategies RoadMap
A panel of We Level Up mental health clinical specialists highlighted annual findings on how consumers can improve recovery odds. In its annual year in review, the WeLevelUp center announces top recovery strategies to achieve sustained long-term recovery during the holiday season & beyond. Along with a road map on how to follow through on them. Those struggling with the stress of COVID-19, related mental health disorders like depression & anxiety triggering chemical dependencies can sustain & self-support ongoing recovery efforts.
In an applicable survey more than half of the participants experienced heightened levels of stress during the holidays. For those in recovery, the holidays can prove extra challenging and be rife with triggers. But, there certainly are ways to cope with holiday stress without using or relapsing. Recovery from mental health disorders and or co-occuring behavioral health issues, chronic relapse-prone disorders, is a lifelong dynamic process. The We Level Up Treatment Center pros' strategies can really work to stem relapse and maintain recovery momentum. Learn relapse prevention best practices that can help anyone avoid falling victim to mental health crisis & substance abuse relapse during the festive holiday season.
"The New Year is an opportunity to start fresh. Behavioral disorders recovery is a lifelong challenge. Using science-based therapies and techniques virtually anyone can DIY & improve recovery success prospects!"
– Ryan Zofay, Founder of the WeLevelUp Personal Development Series
Each year, millions of adults make New Year’s resolutions, wishing to unfold positive transformations. The routine themes each year include a more involved approach to health and fitness and discovering new things for personal and professional growth. Odds are, more than a few of the top 10 most common strategies below may look familiar to most people.
Top 10 Strategies For Recovery For The Holiday Season and New Year and beyond:
1. Start Each Day with a Schedule
Having structure has been shown to play a big role in sustaining recovery. Maintaining a schedule can help prevent one's day-to-day from feeling so hectic, but most importantly, it’ll allow one to start and end each day with a feeling of control. Pencil in everything from travel time to meals. Some people might find overbooking themselves can cause undue stress. See a lot of gaps in the schedule? That brings us to tip #2…
Recovery for the New Year should not be burdensome. Use these 10 tips for a drug-free holiday celebration!
2. Keep Busy
Having too much time on one's hands can lead to boredom, and can be a recipe for relapse if the holidays already have one feeling down. Keep the mind occupied with activities that bring joy. These can include social gatherings or more solo activities like yoga, knitting, watching tv, or working out. Use this time to devote to oneself to something with passionate feelings or to find something new that is of interest.
3. Get Some Sunlight
Seasonal affective disorder or SAD is no laughing matter. It’s well documented that mental health and substance abuse have a closely tied relationship. Even if this type of depression is only seasonal, the impact it has on overall well-being is far-reaching. The winter blues is estimated to affect millions each year often in the form of feelings of hopelessness, overall disinterest, difficulty concentrating, or even thoughts of suicide. To combat these negative feelings, strive to get at least 20-30 minutes of sunshine a day. Living in a climate that does not allow for significant sun exposure? A sun lamp is the next best thing.
4. Prepare Responses
One of the biggest sources of holiday stress can come from interacting with others in a social setting. If one will be interacting with people who haven’t been in involved with in a while, there may be some worry regarding the inevitable questions about what one has been up to. Depending on the relationship among close social groups, feeling uncomfortable telling others that one can’t drink with them during the holiday is normal. Before such gatherings, plan for potential explanations to common questions beforehand and decide on how much to disclose.
5. Leave When Feeling Uncomfortable
Speaking of preparing responses, come up with some excuses that can be used to gracefully bow out when in an uncomfortable situation. Be this a conversation or a gathering, sticking it out and putting oneself in a heightened state of stress or anxiety is not worth it. Stress is one of the most well-known risk factors in the development of behavioral issues and related relapse. It may feel selfish, but it’s important that one places physical, and mental well-being before holiday traditions or niceties.
6. Enlist a Support System
Don’t forget to tap into a support system to help get through the New Year. Social associates serve as a partner at social functions or simply be a friendly ear that one can call in times of boredom, having people who know the situation and can help talk through it can be a huge sense of relief. Before the holidays are in full swing notify the support system that it will probably be needed more than usual so that these social associated can expect calls.
7. Don’t Stop Attending Meetings
Don’t let the holidays interrupt group support meetings. Now more than ever, it is important to have a sense of community and a reminder of why one is doing what. While, sobriety is hard and the holidays make it even harder, tap into fellow group therapy or 12 step members. Peer groups likely been through exactly what going through now and can offer invaluable advice on how to get through the holidays without relapsing.
8. Make Recovery Progress Success Prominent
Visual reminders can be a valuable source of motivation. If one is the type of person who’s encouraged by having hard numbers associated with one's accomplishments, something like a countdown tracker could be helpful in keeping one motivated and on track to stay sober. There is plenty of apps and other software with customizable countdown timers that people use to prominently display the number of days one has been clean.
9. Don’t Isolate
Humans are innately social creatures and the effects of isolation on mental health can be profound. There have been numerous studies on how dangerous isolation and subsequent loneliness can be. In the case of a recovering addict, it can cause extra high levels of stress significantly increasing the likelihood of relapsing. This feeling can be exacerbated if one has not told family or other loved ones that undergoing therapy for complex mental health and related chemical dependence issues is required.
10. Consider New Year’s Resolutions
Last but not least, when in doubt look to the future. Even if one does not participate in resolutions in the traditional sense, the new year is significant as a marker of a fresh start. Experts say it takes 28 days to create a new habit so give one-self a running start by dedicating oneself to making the upcoming new year healthier and happier.
Complex Behavioral Disorders Strategies
Behavioral disorders are treatable. Research on the science of chemical dependence and the treatment of substance use disorders has led to the development of research-based methods that help people to stop using and resume productive lives in recovery. Like other chronic diseases such as heart disease or asthma, treatment for substance abuse usually isn't a cure. But behavioral disorders can be managed successfully, even during celebratory times when temptation becomes stronger.
Treatment enables people to counteract addiction's disruptive effects on the brain and behavior and regain control of everyday lives. Treatment of chronic diseases involves changing deeply rooted behaviors, and relapse doesn’t mean treatment has failed. When a person recovering from an addiction relapse, it indicates that the person needs to speak with a doctor to resume treatment, modify it, or try another treatment.
While relapse is a normal part of recovery, for some chemicals, it can be very dangerous—even deadly. If a person uses as much of the drug as one did before quitting, this can easily result in overdose because the body is no longer adapted to its previous level of drug exposure. An overdose happens when the person uses enough of a drug to produce uncomfortable feelings, life-threatening symptoms, or death.
Behavioral Disorders Medications & Devices Strategies
Different types of medications may be useful at different stages of treatment to help an individual stop abusing drugs, stay in treatment, and avoid relapse. Treating Withdrawal. When patients first stop using addictive substances, virtually all can experience various physical and emotional symptoms, including restlessness or sleeplessness, as well as depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. Certain treatment medications and devices reduce these symptoms, which makes it easier to stop drug use.
Staying in Treatment. Some treatment medications and mobile applications are used to help the brain adapt gradually to the absence of the drug. These treatments act slowly to help prevent drug cravings and have a calming effect on body systems. These medications can help patients focus on counseling and other psychotherapies related to drug treatment.
Preventing Relapse. Science has taught us that stress cues linked to the drug use (such as people, places, things, and moods), and contact with drugs are the most common triggers for relapse. Scientists have been developing therapies to interfere with these triggers to help patients stay in recovery.
Behavioral Therapies Strategies
This time of year tends to be emotionally charged. Nostalgia, self-reflection, and seasonal depression make for a tough combination. When dealing with a breakup or the loss of a family member, the holidays can heighten the feeling of absence making it all the more painful.
Behavioral therapies help people in treatment modify attitudes and behaviors related to chemical dependence. As a result, clients are able to handle stressful situations and various triggers that might cause another relapse. Behavioral therapies can also enhance the effectiveness of medications and help people remain in treatment longer.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. A therapy that seeks to help patients recognize, avoid, and cope with the situations in which patients are most likely to use drugs.
Contingency Management – Uses positive reinforcement such as providing rewards or privileges for remaining drug-free, for attending and participating in counseling sessions, or for taking treatment medications as prescribed.
Motivational Enhancement Therapy – Uses strategies to make the most of people's readiness to change behavior and enter treatment.
Family Therapy – It helps people (especially young people) with drug use problems, as well as families, addresses influences on drug use patterns, and improves overall family functioning.
Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) – It is an individual therapy typically delivered in 12 weekly sessions to prepare people to become engaged in 12-step mutual support programs. 12-step programs, like Alcoholic Anonymous, are not medical treatments, but provide social and complementary support to those treatments. TSF follows the 12-step themes of acceptance, surrender, and active involvement in recovery.
Social Support Strategies
Social support has several benefits that may contribute to the recovery process over time. For example, social support has been found to buffer stress. Moreover, the support of, particularly recovering peers, provides hope, coping strategies, and role models, giving strength in trying times.
One of the strong social support systems that helps a lot in long-term recovery is 12 steps meetings and groups. Present findings, indicating that the majority of individuals in long-term recovery continue to attend meetings and sustain involvement with the 12-step program of recovery, suggest that the beneficial effects of 12-step groups on short-term abstinence extend to the long-term as well. [3]
From a recovery perspective, 12-step groups have the unique advantage of being consistently and widely available in the communities where members live. The chronic, relapse-prone aspect of addictive disorders makes it necessary for many substance users to have access to lifelong support that formal treatment cannot provide. Further, 12-step groups often engage members more intensely and for longer periods than do professional treatment programs.
About Ryan Zofay
Ryan Zofay is most passionate about sharing his practical lessons that change lives. As a successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker, he teaches development strategies that measurably improve performance, connection, and overall mindset.
Through Ryan's recovery success, he's learned how to be a licensed interventionist. He still finds time to give back and help inspire whenever there is a need for intervention.
Ryan Zofay Live Events.
Ryan Zofay is a successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker. He teaches personal development strategies that measurably improve performance, connection, and mindset. Using the teachings of his own successes and tribulations, Ryan has a unique ability to facilitate deep change for individuals and organizations.
Ryan’s passion and enthusiasm readily spill over to his listeners. His own life accounts, amazing comeback journies, along with the wisdom he developed, help formulate instructions on how to realize one's goals. Visit the Ryan Zofay Events page to learn more.
About WeLevelUp Treatment Center
WeLevelUp is a renowned treatment center that applies evidence-based treatment modalities along with holistic programs to improve client recovery outcomes. Combining traditional elements of SUD treatment, including supervised medical recovery coupled with intensive behavioral rehab. Offering cutting-edge advanced therapies, WeLevelUp is an accredited dual diagnosis substance abuse and mental health care provider. Fully integrating co-occurring conditions into powerful recovery programs. Providing a world-class comprehensive continuum of care through each stage of the treatment process. Backed by top-notch doctors, therapists, and counselors leverage the power of science to help clients succeed in rehab recovery. Locations include NJ rehab center, CA rehab center and TX rehab center.
Providing best-in-class treatment in multiple locations, with amenities and activities designed to reinforce recovery success metrics. Each client receives lifetime alumni support post inpatient treatment along with family resources to help maintain recovery momentum, even once clients depart our treatment facilities. Our teams of highly trained professionals are dedicated to each client’s success.
Sources:
https://welevelup.com/coaching/ryan-zofay/
https://welevelup.com/coaching/the-level-up-event-by-ryan-zofay/
https://welevelupfl.com/mental-health-treatment/
Ryan Zofay
We Level Up
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digital@welevelup.com
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