One of the biggest ironies regarding overcoming addiction is that, once you accept the difficult path, the journey will become easier. The effort toward achieving sobriety, however, involves putting your new lifestyle to the test following rehab. What does this mean? Addiction recovery involves multiple steps while in holistic treatment, as well as after treatment ends. Therefore, you will find yourself facing many challenges along the way, including some of the following examples.
Test #1: Can You Convince Another to Become Clean?
Convincing others to become clean can be tough. Many people in recovery believe that an individual decision needs to be made to overcome addiction. However, it’s not impossible for you to be a positive influence in an addict’s life. With practice, you can help others become aware of their addiction.
Test #2: Are You Allowing People to Let You Believe You’ll Relapse?
During your holistic treatment program, you were likely given the statistics regarding how many addicts in early recovery relapse. Despite these numbers, this doesn’t mean you have to let adverse opinions sway you when you leave rehab. It’s important for you to find a support group after rehab to prevent yourself from becoming a statistic.
Test #3: Are You Actively Measuring Your Progress?
If you don’t actively measure your progress, as well as improvements in your sobriety, you risk relapsing. Remaining in a stagnated position in your recovery is poisonous. You’re not growing into a stronger person if you’re becoming too complacent, bored, or comfortable.
Test #4: Have You Quit Smoking?
You may be wondering why this is important, but to achieve overall wellness this step is an essential part of putting your recovery to the test. When following a holistic path, bad habits like smoking are eliminated. It isn’t uncommon for many who are in early recovery to want to continue smoking for the first few years. However, this isn’t a good idea because self-medication with nicotine is still occurring.
Test #5: Are You Expressing Gratitude?
While this may seem like it has nothing to do with staying sober, it does. Some can remain sober without expressing gratitude, but their life isn’t as easy or as enjoyable. Through the practice of giving thanks, your mind will continuously focus on positive things, and these things will consistently be emphasized in your life through sobriety. These efforts will help you recognize positive situations, as well as help you move forward toward positive actions.
Above all, continue testing your recovery by remaining a constant learner. By keeping yourself in learning mode, you’re helping your continued success throughout early recovery. Because everything feels new and uncertain regarding what it will take to stay sober long-term, it makes sense to make learning your primary focus.
