On the face of it, you wouldn’t necessarily think that being bored would have anything to do with addiction. After all, substance abuse is a chronic disease and it doesn’t necessarily have correlate with whether a person feels that he or she has enough to fill his or her days. Feeling bored isn’t necessarily connected to whether a person will develop an addiction but for people who have gone through a drug rehab program and are trying to stay sober, keeping one’s days full is an important goal.
Boredom and Relapse
A recovering addict who has time on his or her hands after leaving a treatment program is leaving him or herself vulnerable to cravings and thoughts that perhaps using “just this once” may be all right. Some people may start to think that since they have been sober for a certain amount of time that they should be able to handle a small amount of their drug of choice.
Preventing Relapse
Staying busy with activities and hobbies and minimizing large pockets of free time is a strategy to prevent relapse. Even though a client who has gone through our drug rehab in PA knows that complete sobriety is expected, they must be constantly monitoring themselves to make sure that they stay on track. If they find themselves starting to think about using, they use strategies they have learned in treatment to ride out the craving or distract themselves until it passes.
Teaching Coping Skills for a Sober Lifestyle
At Summit Behavioral Health, we start giving our clients the tools they need to deal with stress right away. Detox patients attend group therapy sessions twice daily, and get instruction in relationship building, 12 steps of recovery, and mindfulness training. Individual therapy includes creative arts therapies and other techniques.
Clients who move on to our residential treatment program receive individual and group therapy as part of their treatment. They also receive nutritional education and are involved in recreational therapy, fitness training, yoga, relaxation, meditation classes, and fitness training.
The people who are most likely to be able to stay sober over the long term are those who have multiple options for staying busy. They have several hobbies or a sponsor or coping skills lined up that they can access so that they never have large blocks of time with nothing to do, and they have learned to make the most of the coping skills they learned while in rehab.
If You Need Help With Addiction Or Preventing Relapse – Call Us Now!
