One of our biggest challenges in recovery, after we’ve left the treatment center and gone back to our regular lives and daily routines, is knowing how cope on our own, how to fill all the time we once gave to using. It can be overwhelming, daunting, scary and emotionally draining. Many of us have missed out on learning healthy coping skills. We’ve been using our addictions to cope. We haven’t developed ways of coping with stress and anxiety, things that are normal parts of life and that affect all of us. We’ve grown accustomed to trying to avoid these feelings and using our drugs of choice in order to do so. For many of us, our idea of fun is using, and we don’t know how to have fun while sober. We haven’t learned how to do the things that people usually do as part of functioning in daily life, including relaxing and having fun. Sober recreation therapy allows you to explore new interests, hobbies and recreational activities. Occupational therapy works with you to learn new life skills and coping strategies. Both kinds of therapy help you to prepare for life in recovery so that you can implement everything you’ve learned while in treatment. These new things will be there to fall back on when you’re feeling anxious, depressed, lonely or bored, all of which can cause us to want to seek solace in our drugs and behaviors of choice. When urges hit, we can have these things to focus our energy on instead. Having productive and enjoyable ways to spend our time is an important part of keeping ourselves on track. Developing life skills and coping strategies for dealing with the stresses and pressures of addiction and everyday life can mean the difference between staying sober and relapsing. As we practice the things we’ve learned in recreational and occupational therapy, we come to be able to rely on ourselves more to get through difficult moments. We become more self-reliant and self-determined. This can help us to regain some of the confidence and self-esteem we lost while we were struggling with our addictions and depression. We start to believe in ourselves and our self-worth again. We start to take advantage of all of the community support and resources available to us in recovery. We come to know that there is life after addiction, that we can live fulfilling, satisfying, fun lives without drugs.
We offer sober recreation therapy and occupational therapy as part of our treatment programs. Call 1-888-986-7848 for more information.
