Society does not know how to treat people who find themselves under the thumb of substance abuse. It is common to find people thinking of drug addicts as lesser. People see others going through difficulty and immediately rush to explain why bad things are happening to them.
This is the general culture around how drug addicts are viewed in society. But it is not right.
Bad things can happen to good people, and everyone deserve the chance to recover from substance abuse. The trouble is that not everyone is given that chance. Most people who find themselves addicted to a substance will not even know where to begin getting better.
That is what we are here to talk about today. Here are 10 things you should do to start dealing with your substance abuse problems.
Wean Yourself Off
The most basic step of dealing with substance abuse is to stop abusing the substance. But if it were that easy, then there would be no addicts in the world. Going cold turkey will leave you rebounding hard if you do not have the support structure around to deal with it.
It is much better to start by reducing your consumption.
Find a Support Group
Therapy is one of the most important components of fighting addiction. Any larger treatment plan that you take part in will include therapy as a key component. Support groups are valuable because they allow you to get an idea of what this therapy is like without the treatment plan.
And not only that, but it will also give you insight into how other people handle their struggles.
Clean Your Environment
We are not just telling you to clean your room, though you should definitely do that too. What we are getting at here is that there are a lot of environmental reasons why people get addicted.
Hanging out with friends who only ever want to drink or do drugs, taking a route home from work that makes you pass by a bar or a dealer, and yes, keeping addictive substances in your living space can all contribute to bad habits that build up to addiction.
Pay Attention to Your Finances
One of the main things that prevents addicts from getting treatment (aside from the stigma) is the fact that they do not recognize they have a problem. Looking at the financial cost of addiction can be one of the shortest paths to getting a reality check about how bad it is.
Seek Medical Care
You might think that this should come first. And indeed, it is easily one of the more important things you should do. But not everyone is going to be comfortable with the experience of treating their substance abuse like a medical condition.
To begin with, they have to confront their own internal issues with their addiction. It is easy for addicts to become convinced that they deserve the suffering of their addiction for being addicts.
That kind of circular thinking is the result of a damaged mind.
Get Personal Therapy
We mentioned support groups before. But they do not do the whole job for everyone. There is no way to tell if one-on-one therapy will be better or worse. For some people, they can handle their emotions better in a group. For others, they can handle them better one-on-one.
The goal of diversifying the kinds of therapy you try is to make sure you find what works for you. Even people who otherwise seem fine and mentally healthy can benefit from trying therapy.
Find Out What Causes Your Cravings
Most of the time (though not all of the time), cravings can be traced back to a specific trigger. There will be a moment before you have a craving, and then a moment afterwards. And in between those two moments there will be something that triggers a craving for your vice.
Identifying these can be key to figuring out how to curate your environment to keep you from suffering from them.
Find a Detox Facility
The advantage of detox facilities is that they can (and often do) offer everything you need to deal with the hardest parts of getting over a dependency. This means medications, therapy, and most of all, living spaces. Many people will need overnight care to deal with their withdrawal.
These are more critical the worse your dependency is, as withdrawal symptoms are more intense for people who have had a dependency for longer.
Exercise
This is one of those tips that everyone hates, even people who are trying to solve problems that have nothing to do with addiction. It takes time and is usually hard and not very exciting, but exercising can be the key to having a body capable of overcoming dependency.
The main reason for this is that your body thinks it needs your addiction to live. The healthier you are when you start your journey to recovery, the easier it is for your body to correct that.
Change How You Spend Your Time
Drinking, smoking, shooting up heroin, a lot of it starts with not knowing how else to spend one’s time. Most vices are essentially social. People take part in them because they need to spend their time doing something and spending time with people is highly fulfilling, even doing that.
Finding a new hobby to take the place of your addiction can do a lot more than you expect to keep you from falling back onto the addiction just to fill the time.
Conclusion
There are tons of different layers to addiction. That means that it can be daunting to take it on, but it also means that there is almost no wrong way to do it.
If you start by cleaning your environment of bad influences, then that works. If you change your diet and start exercising before you stop using, then that is better than doing nothing. Do what works for you. And if you have any questions, visit us here: https://www.ascendantny.com/about-us/
