Finding Motivation for Addiction Recovery Motivational Enhancement

With the help of the three tips mentioned above, you’ll be able to ensure that your motivation remains as strong as ever to fight all of the temptations that may come your way. When you take a look at what makes substance abuse such a difficult thing to handle and experience, some of the most prominent factors you’ll encounter are the negative implications to your health and finances. Related to light PA, we found that when the need for Physical Activity increased, the amount of light PA decreased. This may be related to the increased awareness of and interest in improving health and reducing stress.

• Addictions treatment should be fluid and flexible enough to match the specific needs of each person.
• Motivation can help people to strive to achieve their goals.
• Studies have found that this practice—called self-affirmation—can help you make healthier decisions and improve your relationships.
• Research has shown that autonomous motivators — the internal things that motivate you to recover — are much more effective than external motivators.
• Motivation levels often fade when one has unfulfilled expectations or unrealistic goals.
• Deep breathing a couple times a day could take only 20 minutes of the week.

Before entering treatment, individuals must commit to getting sober. Abstaining from substance use can be physically and psychologically painful. In many instances, people turn to drugs or alcohol to help reduce stress and relax. But, over time, this harmful behavior can lead to long-term consequences, including addiction. Carolina Center for Recovery is a state-licensed and CARF accredited substance abuse treatment facility. We are a dual-diagnosis facility with a primary focus on substance abuse, offering individualized, extended-term treatment in an intimate setting.

The Top 3 Ways to Keep Your Motivation High in Early Recovery

Have a set time that you eat in the morning, a time you go for a walk, a time when you read, and a time when you go to bed. If you or someone you know needs help navigating the road to recovery in Los Angeles, New York, or Houston, get in touch with one of our confidential Admission Specialists.

Some of these pros could include an increased awareness of life, a healthier body, greater ambition, and a new social circle full of loving individuals who accept who you are. Recovery as a whole can be overwhelming for someone that is just starting. The challenges in early recovery can cause you to doubt yourself and think that you cannot do it.

Talk to your treatment team

However, if you only think that you have to make it through the day or even through the hour, that typically feels more manageable. You can only act in the present moment, so if you can motivate yourself to not drink, to go to your meeting, to call your therapist, or whatever else you need to do right now, that’s really all you have to worry about. The other strategies described here can help you cope with doubt. Having a strong sober network is especially helpful since you’ll meet people who have succeeded despite significant challenges. It’s also important to learn ways to push back against irrational thoughts. For example, if you think things like, “You’ll fail at this because you fail at everything,” you might recognize this as an overgeneralization and push back with a thought like, “Really?

• It is easy to lose hope and slip into relapse without the proper motivation to keep you striving for a brighter future.
• It is important to acknowledge that these feelings are normal, and they are bound to occur from time to time.
• A schedule will ensure that you avoid distractions, meet your daily responsibilities, and remain focused on your sobriety.
• You can find motivation from anywhere if you are looking and working for it.

During addiction, the continued use of drugs is the status quo – despite its destructiveness, the drug use itself allows a person to ignore the damage it does and focus on the chemical high it provides. Portions of the brain that were directly affected by drug use begin to return to their former self. Some aspects of drug addiction are never truly remedied – some argue that the urge to use never goes away, but simply grows weaker. To an addicted brain, the easiest way to overcome the struggles of sobriety is to just use again. Treating addiction often means helping an addict recognize this thought process and subvert it, using sobriety as an opportunity to grow and change. In one way, this includes helping recovering addicts create their own motivating factors.

If you are trying to express pain, or anger, or hurt someone else through shrinking your body, it’s not worth it.

Initially, it might simply be because you’re done living the way you did before sobriety. A good way to help keep your eye on the prize and tethered to early recovery is to join a home group in your chosen 12-step fellowship. They will help you with this, as you will become part of a group of like-minded people trying to keep their eyes on the prize. In fact, it helps your sobriety a great deal to work on other aspects of your life.

Perhaps it is because life has become too stressful or your job and new responsibilities are just overwhelming and you don’t have a solid enough outlet for that. Maybe you just don’t feel like life is as fun sober, so you become bored and the motivation leaves you. When motivation leaves and fatigue of recovery hits, this is when relapse becomes a real haunting concern. There motivation for sobriety are many different things you can do to stay motivated in recovery. The main reason this aspect plays such a significant part in the recovery journeys of any recovering addict is that it helps fuel the change that must take place before other measures are set. Having the right mindset and drive is responsible for ensuring that every stage of recovery goes according to plan.

The first step towards finding motivation can be as simple as trying something new. These services include counseling, 12-step programs and sober housing. Engaging in aftercare services is a critical component to recovery because 40 to 60 percent https://ecosoberhouse.com/ of people who complete treatment experience relapse. When you’re trying to keep yourself motivated, it helps to have a clear vision of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, you don’t have much incentive to persist through tough times.

Accepting that recovery is not a linear process can be difficult to wrap your head around. Most people in recovery expect the process to feel like putting one foot in front of the other and are discouraged to find themselves sometimes seemingly taking one step forward, and two back. In those moments, they may lose sight of the fact they are not back at square one and in the moments they think they are moving backwards, are actually opportunities for growth and learning. What may feel like a bad day, bad week, or bad month does not mean you have lost all the progress you’ve made. Every day in recovery is a step forward, no matter how small. To achieve satisfaction with our lives we must develop a sense of meaning and purpose.

For many individuals with drug or alcohol problems, motivational factors such as religion can inspire them to change their lives and avoid substance use. Finding motivation to achieve and maintain abstinence from drugs and alcohol is a critical first step to getting sober. The inspiration to live a sober lifestyle can come from loved ones, from people in similar situations or simply from thinking about the consequences of substance use. But the “positive” and “negative” eating disorder thoughts and behaviors are linked. It’s crucial, then, to accept that the recovery process includes stopping all behaviors.

You might keep pictures of your family around you, where you can see them easily. You might periodically write about why family is important to you. Studies have found that this practice—called self-affirmation—can help you make healthier decisions and improve your relationships. Our mission is to watch all of our clients become completely free from the bondage of substance abuse.

Consider the monetary and physical costs

Learn more about our treatment programs and reach out to us today. If you have a treatment team, such as a therapist or counselor and dietitian, being honest with them is extremely important. Telling your treatment team what you are thinking and experiencing can be helpful to explore what may be causing these difficulties in recovery. They can offer suggestions and support to help you stay on track. Being completely honest is so important, so do not hold back!