Addiction Recovery Worksheet For Identifying Healthy Replacements for that Drugs and alcohol
Probably the most important tasks of early recovery from alcohol along with other substance abuse is understanding how to switch the chemical with health living skills. If you have taken caffeine from your existence, it leaves a large gaping hole, where something of substance was. Alcohol or any other drugs have offered many purposes during the period of addiction. They’ve performed many roles. They’d significant functions inside your existence. Once the chemical is taken away out of your behavior repertoire, how would you cope with stress, a frustrating coworker, insomnia, and task overload? In addiction, caffeine has been utilized as an alternative for living skills. Early recovery is a time period of learning new living skills–partially so that you can not feel compelled revisit caffeine whenever you feel at a loss for the requirements of daily life. To avoid relapse in recovery, you have to find healthy options for caffeine.
Most people don’t start consuming or using other mood altering drugs to numb emotional or mental discomfort. They began consuming or using to possess fun, enhance a great time, take part in a social group or gathering. After you have consumed caffeine you learn rapidly that mood/mind altering drugs just do that. You discover these chemicals try to relax you, provide you with courage, assist you to concentrate or focus. They create you more articulate, a much better dancer, a great conversationalist, more outgoing, or perhaps a better lover-or at best you believe the harmful chemicals do this. Plus they will work for that purposes that you’re applying them, for the time being.
Eventually, whenever you become determined by caffeine to cope with existence, using its challenges and good and the bad, the drugs (including alcohol) appear to possess a mind that belongs to them. Use assumes a momentum of their own, and finally it is the drugs controlling you, instead of you controlling how, when, where, just how much, and also the outcomes.
It’s inaccurate and ineffective to think when you will discover “why” you used to begin with and ongoing to make use of despite negative effects, that you’ll be cured, fixed, or struck sober. However, when you are abstinent in the chemical, to be able to stay sober, you have to find out the roles the chemicals have performed inside your existence. It’s too simplistic to state these roles are “why” you drank/used. It’s more difficult than that. However, to avoid relapse, you have to find something totally new concerning your stress, anxiety, feelings, etc. than drink or use drugs.
Alcoholics/addicts make use of the chemical for numbing feelings, relaxing, providing them with more self-confidence, to lessen hang-ups, to flee from problems temporarily, not to consider nagging ideas, to lessen anxiety, and also to feel part of an organization. There are lots of other roles or functions from the chemical.
Recovering people must identify on their own the roles the chemical performed within their lives. Then find out the possible healthy replacements for individuals roles. To help you within this process, make use of the following worksheet format:
Worksheet For Identifying Healthy Replacements for Alcohol/Drugs
By Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Use separate paper and also the following format to help you in identifying the roles the chemicals have performed inside your existence and possible healthy options to individuals chemicals. You may even make use of a Two Column Format, in which the first column is titled “Roles” and also the second column is titled “Healthy Alternatives”. First identify grounds that you simply drank/used, or perhaps a role or function the chemical performed then identify several things that can be done rather of consuming/using when the requirement for that role/purpose/function returns. A good example of consuming for reducing stress being substituted with exercise, AA conferences, relaxation skills, etc. “stress”
Examples:
Role – Reduce Stress
Replacements – Workout, self-hypnosis, led imagery, learning new problem-solving skills, eliminating stalling, practice better organization, practicing psychotherapy
Role – Getting fun/entertainment
Replacements – Develop support system and friendship network of people that don’t drink/use, develop hobbies, take salsa dance training, learn how to play tennis, watch movies online with buddies,
Role – Cope with feelings
Replacements – Learn how to identify, own, and express feelings appropriately, learn and exercise assertiveness skills, write letters to individuals you have feelings about (try not to distribute them), use prayer, search for the part that you simply participate in the bitterness or even the conflict, speak with sponsor or friend, help remind yourself that feelings are common, that everybody has them, and that you’ve a choice along with a responsibility about how to handle them.
Role – Relax and fall asleep
Replacements – Use sleeping hygiene, get exercise earlier within the day, read Big Book during sex, use thought stopping techniques to reduce mind-racing, ruminating, or worry, make a continuing gratitude list and make use of it in your thoughts while you lie during sex, take warm bath/shower, pay attention to relaxation tapes.
The above mentioned are a couple of types of the roles the chemicals might have performed inside your existence. The types of replacements will also be only a sample. You may have exactly the same replacements employed for different role groups. For instance, you may use exercise to cope with anxiety, stress, anger, monotony, fun, and sleep (amongst others). The thing is to recognize that which you used caffeine for and also to identify replacements that you’ll really try to use. Create a list. Increase it as being you consider new role groups and substitute options. Make certain that the substitute lists include social activities that provide you with into frequent connection with other sober people. Publish it from your door, inside your vehicle, at the job-wherever you can observe it whenever you most have to be advised there are alternatives inside your existence towards the chemical.
The greater techniques that you simply try, the greater you utilize and exercise them, the greater your chances will be to choose alternatives compared to chemical, whenever you might have used caffeine previously.