Young Adults Staying Sober After Rehab

Soulegria Offers The 12 Steps in its Substance Abuse Treatment

Since its humble beginnings in Akron 84 years ago, 'The Steps' is a curriculum that has evolved into an inclusive tool that most rehabilitation programs and residential treatment centers use in their curriculum.

Like the time-tested common phrase says, Soulegria "is not trying to reinvent the wheel" when it comes to treating young addicts; instead, our clinically-proven curriculum expertly uses it as a fundamental tool.

What more, we incorporate The 12 Steps Program in our dynamic mental health-supported treatment model.

Why do we use the 12 Step Program?

As to why we utilize the 12 steps, the answer is simple: more than because of its proven effectiveness, we fully believe in the ideology of 'The Steps' and instill them in our effective mental health-related treatment.

Our Treatment and Mission

Along with 12 Step treatment, life skills coaching, healthy living skills, and support, we at Soulegria provide dynamic treatment for both addicts and non-addicts who need extra assistance with their transition into young adulthood.

Furthermore, Souegria's treatment model is specifically designed to help develop healthy relationship skills between students and their families. These skills are further necessary for forging one's path toward a life of full independence. 

We at Soulegria want parents of struggling young addicts to know they are not alone and help is just a phone call away. Our mission is to assist their young adult in their journey to live a fulfilling life free of the bonds of alcoholism and drug addiction. For further assistance, please call us today at (800) 348-8508.

Achieving Sobriety is Only the Beginning...

Each year, thousands of addicts find sobriety through various forms of therapy and spiritual means. 

Unfortunately, a large percentage of these newly sober addicts will struggle with staying sober. It will ultimately fall back into their old ways of using and abusing harmful, life-sabotaging substances. 

For those who genuinely want to attain and, most importantly, retain their sobriety, there are ways to significantly increase their chances of doing so. For those determined to do just that, it's all about taking what they have learned in rehabilitation and further applying it to their lives back home. 

The First Step to Staying Sober After Treatment: Structured and Disciplined Living (Apply What Was Learned in Treatment)

The first step in remaining sober after completing rehab is to adhere to the importance of a structured environment's regimen.

When it comes to living with addiction, one's life tends to be chaotic and undisciplined. Therefore, newly rehabilitated addicts must apply the structure and discipline they were forced to undergo while in rehab. Too often, it is simple as slipping into a lax schedule that leads an addict to lapse back into using. 

By sticking to a regimen that is as closely trained as their schedule was in rehab - one full of constructive, healthy living-based activities - a young man or woman dramatically increases their chances of continuing to live in their hard-fought sobriety. 

This method of regimented living works for a few fundamental reasons. The first being is that living a balanced and structured day-to-day life builds healthy, life-affirming habits. Adopting these healthy habits will further ensure that they will also abstain from falling prey to their old destructive ones. Additionally, adhering to their life positive practices will greatly assist young rehabilitated addicts in avoiding triggers and other self-destructive excuses that had once enabled their substance abuse and stifled any chances of staying sober.  

"A busy mind is a happy mind."

Strict adherence to structure also provides young addicts with fewer opportunities to deviate and partake in self-destructive behaviors. In other words, living a life of structure acts as a healthy distraction, which further enables young recovering addicts to stay focused on their mission of living free of drugs. 

By rigorously developing healthy distractions of a structured schedule, they can finally free themselves of the obsessive mindset that substances once used to control them and replace it with an equally obsessive mindset that can ensure they stay sober. 

Mitigating Triggering Situations

Upon reentering their homelife after residential treatment, every young addict is faced with what behavioral specialists term 'trigger circumstances.' Essentially, trigger circumstances are any situation that acts as a trigger or environmental temptations that lead an addicted person to abuse a substance.

Avoiding triggers is an arduous but necessary process. To further complicate matters, every trigger is unique to the recovering addicted person it affects. These temptation lures work almost magnetic-like in bringing a recently recovered addict back to their drug of choice. 

While trigger situations are unique and vary from person to person, they typically involve situational factors such as seeing past friends and acquaintances, returning to old haunches where they once used drugs, and emotionally-charged items or situations that remind them of abusing said substances in the past. 

But while facing one's triggers are unfortunately unavoidable, a determined addict in recovery can mitigate their power by actively avoiding places and situations that may increase the influence said triggers possess over them. This is why things like building new relationships and letting go of old ones are critical parts of the recovery process. 

Here is a list of some of the ways young adults in recovery can avoid their triggers:

Utilize or leaning on their support system - It's vital for recovering young addicts to Surround themselves with the supportive influence of those who genuinely care about them and whose goals align with their sobriety. This net of support can include family, friends, a significant other, co-workers, and other addicts in recovery (such as those attending 12-step meetings). At the end of the day, it's imperative they lean on a support system of the people mentioned above who genuinely have their best interests at heart. 

Be a "Goal Setter" - Overcoming addictive behavior and embarking on a significant life change is daunting, and therefore, can quickly become overwhelming. However, setting small and achievable goals can make this transitional phase much simpler. What's more, by setting and achieving said goals, an addict in recovery can build and boost their confidence, more efficiently manage triggers, and develop life-skills that are necessary for living an independent lifestyle.  

Take care of oneself - the process of taking care of oneself may sound trite, but in many cases is the catalyst in whether one continues one sobriety or breaks it. This form of self-care includes (but not limited to):

• Adhering to a healthy sleep schedule.
• Eating nutritious foods.
• Getting adequate exercise.
• Abstaining from negative habits and people that can enable contrary. 

Failure to do any one or more of these examples can easily lead to the development of depression, which, of course, happens to be the leading cause of substance abuse and addiction.

Being Environmentally Conscious: Recycling One's Old Self-destructive Life for Healthy One Worth Living

Modifying one's environment 

This includes changing one's living space and environment to fit their sobriety needs better. For example, removing or requesting someone remove drug-related memorabilia or other things that glorify abusing drugs and alcohol from one's living space. Other examples include keeping their living space tidy and in order and avoiding other environments that may be chaotic or self-destructive. 

Using one's techniques and honed living skills learned while in treatment

This measure is one of the most advantageous tools a recovering addict can utilize. After all, what good is learning skillsets and techniques if you don't use them? That would be like graduating college only to fail at a professional one specifically learned to navigate successfully. In other words, for a young recovering addict to retain their sobriety, they must be conscientious of utilizing the skills they developed and honed while in treatment. These would include situational learning of strategically avoiding triggering situations, going to 12 step meetings, etc.  

Developing new habits to replace old negative ones 

Changing one's habits can be difficult, and quitting old ones are even more difficult. However, it might make take the edge to remember that it only takes 30 to 60 days to replace a habit with a new one. By reframing one's mindset to change their habits by a day, then a month at a time, a recovering addict is more easily able to make significant life changes in the long run. 

The Undeniable Importance of Learning How to Have 'Sober Fun'

While it might sound strange, having fun - sober fun, that is - is one of the most essential skills a recent recovering addict possess in their 'sobriety toolbox.' Weirdly enough, this part of sobriety is perhaps one of the most challenging notions for newly sobered young adults to fully conceive, let alone acquire and practice in their personal lives - at least initially.

Why? Because most addicts associate pleasure or fun with using their drug of choice. 

However, as successful young addicts tend to find out upon returning home from rehab or residential treatment, there's plenty of fun to be had while being sober; literally endless opportunities of enjoyment can only be fully experienced if one is of sober mind and body. 

When seeking out new and exponentially more healthy forms of sober-affirming entertainment, it's important to be enthusiastic, adventurous, and willing to try new things.

For instance, if you enjoy being outside, perhaps trying new fun-filled pursuits such as kayaking, exploring beautiful nearby trails, fishing, cycling, or even adrenaline-filled activities such as sky diving or bungee jumping, which can serve as a gratifying replacement for negative and self-destructive sources of pleasure.

Keep in mind, the whole point of this helpful tip is to try new things, go to new places, and re-discover oneself by embarking on new adventures that previous addictions prevented one from one considering. 

It's true; the world can be a sober man or woman's playground.