Substance abuse is often triggered by stress and mental health struggles, and sobriety involves changing patterns and habits in day-to-day life without what used to be a coping mechanism. Early sobriety is frequently accompanied by higher levels of anxiety, more intense emotional suffering, and craving-inducing stress. Cravings tend to be worse in high stress or challenging situations. Using substances to avoid and temporarily reduce mental health symptoms is a short-term solution that leads to increased mental health symptoms, so management and different coping mechanisms can help. There are many ways to work with this knowledge under your belt:
Some tips for maintaining sobriety in stressful situations are more important than ever:
- Be compassionate with yourself
- Take a break when you feel that things are piling up, spend time with friends watching movies or outside. Rather than forcing yourself to be productive, it is best to rest and recuperate so that you can better handle the things on your mind. Eat a favorite comfort food, such as a warm soup or mashed potatoes. Order yourself a massage if you have some extra money, or massage your own neck or sore muscles. Take a walk in nature and try to find things that are your favorite color. Try to reach a new number each time. Write to yourself about a difficult time, whether it be current or past, as if you are a comforting friend, and give encouragement, advice, and comfort. Try a ten minute meditation to gain mindfulness.
- Be mindful of Your Mental Health Patterns
- If you notice that you have been down for a longer time than normal or have had more ups and downs than normal, it can be important to talk about this once it is noticed. If it continues, bring it up with a mental health professional. Consider seeing a regular therapist if you can afford it, this can help both keep an eye on the mental health patterns, introduce personal healthy coping skills, and be another source of accountability for your sobriety and a safe and confidential place to talk about craving struggles. You can bring up these concerns with a medical provider as well.
- Consider Reevaluating the people around you, your surroundings, and possessions
- Mental health struggles and Early Sobriety bring a lot of change that feels without choice, so it can be helpful to have choices within some of the changes. Look at your support system. If there are people within your community that are not supportive of your sobriety or your mental health then it may be time to consider new people in your community. Not to worry, you can find those new people within the CRC meetings that will always be supportive of those two things, or at another meeting that is sobriety focused. Move around furniture in your bedroom, it can give it a whole new look, paint the walls a different color if the space allows it, hang up Christmas lights or a new decoration that adds new lighting to the space.
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