Revisit, Revise & Regroup: How to Make Addiction Treatment Work for You
Whether residential, outpatient or sober living, choosing to return to treatment can help you re-establish what you learned when you entered treatment the first time. Re-affirming treatment skills that work, revising treatment skills or tailoring a new plan to meet unique circumstances are ways you can make the treatment work for your situation.
Revisiting Addiction Treatment
Maybe cravings overwhelm you. Perhaps you went ahead and used a substance again. You ran into someone you used with in the past. Or maybe you are newly in recovery, feel unstable and believe a review will steady you. Whatever the reason, returning to treatment might be the best option. Here are some benefits of doing so:
- It strengthens skills learned the first time you attended treatment. Doing anything more than once makes it easier to remember to do it the next time. You want the skills you learned in addiction treatment to become routine.
- You create affirmations to tell yourself you are worth recovery. When you question your worth, it can weaken your resolve to stay sober. Do this every day, perhaps multiple times a day, because there will be someone or something ready to convince you otherwise.
- Being around others in treatment provides positive reinforcement that you are not in addiction recovery alone. Whenever you are going through a challenging time, knowing you are not doing it alone is beneficial. Knowing others have walked your path and succeeded can give you hope and resolve to continue.
- Patients relearn relapse prevention therapy to keep them focused on their sobriety. It is powerful to relearn these techniques, perhaps take notes this time and incorporate them into your aftercare plan.
The benefits of revisiting a treatment program are plentiful. Returning to treatment can give you ways to identify and develop a plan for when you experience a trigger.
Revising Addiction Treatment
Even while revisiting addiction treatment, maybe you’ll realize that something that worked before isn’t working the same way. This is when it’s time to revise your program. Here are some ways to accomplish that:
- One of the first things you will do is review your aftercare plan. What was working? What was not? Did you have loopholes you took advantage of regularly? Be honest with yourself.
- Practice how to remove yourself from unsafe situations. These situations put your sobriety at risk. Individuals in addiction recovery may deal with these situations daily. Knowing different ways to avoid them is essential to your goal of life-long recovery.
- Go all in by making a stand for your sobriety. Doing so will help build your self-confidence and help you ignore those who may doubt your recovery. Tell yourself you can do it and that recovery is possible for you. Focus your thoughts on possibilities and ways to turn them into reality.
- A component of your aftercare plan should be to set short-term goals for yourself. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you achieve them. Goals can be recovery-related or not. You can set goals to learn a new hobby, take a trip or meet new sober friends. Just do what is attainable this time around.
Although you can revise your aftercare plan at any time, you get to focus on revisions while in treatment. Dedicated time for this activity makes it easier for you to complete the task. Returning to any addiction treatment allows you to re-focus on your recovery.
Regrouping in Addiction Treatment
With your new recovery plan in place, you are ready to regroup and begin again with your strengthened sobriety. You have new ideas you want to implement. It is time to test tips. Following are ways to regroup and jump into your recovery activities:
- Some people find it helpful to attend support groups as soon as they are out of treatment to solidify their recovery mindset. Different types of groups range from overcoming a drug of choice to other behaviors associated with addiction, such as codependency or emotional issues.
- Others find yoga therapy or reiki healing beneficial to de-stress, be mindful and take addiction recovery one day at a time. A benefit of these therapies is you can do them alone or in a group setting. Either way, it is “me time” that allows you to focus on yourself and what is going on with you.
- Let your friends and family know ways they can support you. Understand that some may drop you, falsely believing you failed because you returned to treatment. In truth, you succeeded by returning to treatment. You kept yourself safe and alive.
- Always acknowledge your progress. You have come so far in your addiction recovery compared to your past. Even if you return to treatment, you did so because you realize you needed additional help.
You are ready to restart your journey to life-long sobriety. A return to treatment is like a personal tune-up on your journey. It can make you stronger, allow you to regroup and walk taller as you recover.
Make addiction treatment work for you whenever you need it. Do not look at a return to treatment as a failure. See it as a successful step in your recovery. You acknowledged your need for additional help and sought it from professionals. You just fulfilled the recovery philosophy of “one day at a time” by revisiting, revising and regrouping around recovery concepts, tips and therapies.
You have no reason to be ashamed. You have decided to return to addiction treatment. When you do, you acknowledge something is missing in your current recovery plan or something needs strengthening. Revisiting what you learned previously builds up your knowledge base, so you have tools to prevent relapse . A Cliffside Malibu in California, we provide you the highest quality treatment and aftercare opportunities in a compassionate, supportive and healing environment. If you are ready to make changes in your life, call us at (855) 403-5641. We can help you begin healing today.