| Maintaining sobriety from drug and alcohol use or | | | | dishonest in cheating, or becoming self-centered in |
| addiction is a proactive process; certain skills and | | | | the extreme. In other cases coping skills are either |
| attitudes need to be developed and utilized. | | | | undeveloped, or underutilized. Some examples of life |
| There is an old adage that states quitting drug and | | | | skills that may need some work are the ability to |
| alcohol use is easy, staying quit is the hard part. I'm | | | | communicate, basic social skills, knowing how to |
| not sure if I agree with the easy part, but it is a fact | | | | develop and maintain interpersonal or intimate |
| that many people have difficulty maintaining | | | | relationships. |
| abstinence from drug and alcohol use and suffer a | | | | 4. Identifying, owning, and processing emotions - |
| relapse. There are certain attitudes and behaviors | | | | there is often stated rule in relapse prevention that |
| that can be developed that will decrease the | | | | advises people in recovery to avoid "people, places, |
| likelihood of returning to drug and alcohol use. | | | | and things" that could be dangerous to the recovery. |
| Here is a list of the top 5 sobriety tools: | | | | In reality, is may not be the situations or triggers that |
| 1. Motivation level - maintaining abstinence from mood | | | | are more dangerous, but our rather our inability to |
| altering drugs is definitely doable, but in most cases | | | | handle the emotions that these things generate. Our |
| difficult. In order to achieve difficult goals it makes | | | | actions are often generated by our feelings. |
| sense that the motivation has to be very high. | | | | 5. Self-esteem and self-confidence - if a person does |
| People who rank their sobriety as a number one | | | | not have the self-confidence in their ability to remain |
| priority often have better results than those who put | | | | abstinent, certainly undercuts the motivation to keep |
| maintaining recovery on their 'to do' list. There should | | | | working at it. If a person does not start feeling |
| be an absolute commitment not to drinker drug 'no | | | | better about themselves in recovery and gain |
| matter what'. | | | | self-esteem, then the idea of returning to drug and |
| 2. Handling cravings - as sure as the sun will rise | | | | alcohol use can become very attractive. There needs |
| tomorrow, thoughts and cravings of using drugs or | | | | to be some internal reward for going through all the |
| alcohol will occur to anyone in recovery. The skill that | | | | effort of maintaining sobriety. |
| needs to be developed is to stop these thoughts and | | | | Relapse back into drug and alcohol use happens with |
| cravings from becoming an actual using incident. The | | | | alarming frequency for great number of people. It is |
| good news here is that cravings generally decrease in | | | | therefore only prudent to develop plans that |
| frequency and intensity over time. It helps to have a | | | | decrease the possibility of relapse. However, relapse |
| concrete plan of action in place prior to the | | | | not a part of the recovery process, many people |
| occurrence of the craving for using thought. | | | | stopped using drugs in our overall never to return to |
| 3. Coping Skills often people in early recovery rely on | | | | it. In my experience, however, these people have |
| coping skills that were developed to protect their | | | | put a great deal of proactive planning into use. They |
| drug and alcohol abuse. This might include becoming | | | | have made recovery their number one priority and |
| isolated and pushing people away, becoming | | | | have been ferocious in their commitment. |