Coping Skills for Addiction Recovery
What Are Coping Skills for Addiction? Coping skills are tactics that people employ in order to help them deal with difficult or uncomfortable situations. Coping with a substance abuse disorder is an extremely difficult process and involves learning various coping mechanisms to maintain sobriety. There is a difference between healthy and unhealthy coping skills. The use of drugs or alcohol to avoid uncomfortable emotions is considered an unhealthy coping skill. Learning and practicing healthy coping skills for addiction recovery can help you deal with stressful situations in your life and assist you in avoiding using drugs or alcohol – paving the way for long-term, sustainable sobriety. What Is the Cycle of Addiction? The cycle of addiction refers to the recurring behavioral and mental patterns of substance abuse and addiction. This cycle can prevent you from attempting recovery and remaining sober. The stages in the cycle of addiction include addiction, withdrawal, and relapse. These will be detailed below. Stages of the Addiction Cycle It is important to recognize the stages of the addiction cycle: addiction, withdrawal, and relapse. Addiction In the addiction stage of substance abuse, you may go through several other phases before reaching this stage. That can include initial use, abuse, tolerance, dependence, and then finally full-blown addiction. The signs of addiction include: Needing an increased amount of the substance to experience the same result Experiencing urges and cravings to use Spending a great deal of time seeking out or using the substance Being unable to meet home, work, or school obligations Continuing to use despite the negative consequences Wanting to quit but not being able to successfully quit Using the substance despite it placing you in unsafe or harmful situations Continuing to use despite worsening mental, emotional, or physical health caused by use Cutting back on social situations and continuing to use despite relationship problems it has caused Withdrawal In the withdrawal stage of substance use, any attempt to quit or stop using will result in withdrawal symptoms. Some withdrawal symptoms may include: Increased anxiety Depression Fatigue Tremors Body aches Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea Seizures Hallucinations The withdrawal symptoms will be dependent upon the substance used. Relapse The final stage in the cycle of addiction is the relapse stage. This stage often occurs as the withdrawal symptoms become too overwhelming or the cravings and urges are too strong. At this point, you will feel the desire and may act on your urges, and use again in order to reclaim the physical and emotional state felt while using. What Are Relapse Triggers? In addiction recovery, it is not uncommon for individuals to experience triggers and relapse. A goal of addiction recovery programs is to teach individuals how to identify their triggers and learn coping skills for addiction recovery in order to prevent relapse. Triggers can be both internal and external. Internal Triggers Internal triggers are often more difficult to deal with than external triggers as you cannot avoid internal triggers. Ways of dealing with addiction involve being able to identify and cope with internal triggers. These types of triggers are: Negative feelings: This can include guilt, shame, depression, anger, loneliness, fear, hate, jealousy, irritation, and agitation. These feelings are extremely dangerous in addiction as they can cause someone to fall into a downward spiral. Normal feelings: Normal feelings are those that people experience day to day. These feelings can take a toll on us, and coping with addiction involves being able to address these feelings. Normal feelings include boredom, embarrassment, tiredness, nervousness, loneliness, sadness, stress, and frustration. Positive feelings: These can also be triggers for many people. Celebration is often a trigger for use. Positive feelings include happiness, sexual arousal, passion, and confidence. External Triggers External triggers are defined as people, places, activities, situations, or things that remind you of using. These can be people you would use with, places you would use, or objects involved in your use, such as paraphernalia. Coping skills in recovery may include ways to avoid these external triggers. Strategies for dealing with addiction can include identifying what your external triggers may be. Coping skills in recovery will help you address and identify your internal and external triggers. Identifying triggers is an important step in creating addiction recovery strategies. What is Relapse? This stage of the cycle of addiction is when coping with cravings in recovery is important. Relapse is defined by re-engaging in behaviors that you had previously stopped. In recovery from addiction, this means re-engaging in drug or alcohol use. In addiction treatment, there are three different types of relapse: emotional relapse, mental relapse, and physical relapse. Emotional Relapse Emotional relapse often starts before you even begin using drugs or alcohol again. You may not even be thinking about using drugs or alcohol at this stage. However, you may start to feel lonely, restless, and isolated. At this stage of relapse, you may start to disengage from addiction treatment. The best relapse prevention coping skills involve being able to recognize when you are starting to isolate yourself and bottle up emotions. Mental Relapse Mental relapse is the stage in which you start to convince yourself that no one will know if you start to use again. You start considering using substances again in order to relieve any emotional or physical distress caused by an attempt at recovery. This stage of relapse is when the cravings start to kick in. In mental relapse, you may start looking for justifications or excuses as to why it would be okay for you to start using again under certain circumstances. This stage is one of the most important stages to have strong recovery coping skills. Physical Relapse The final stage of relapse is physical relapse. In this stage, you have actively engaged in using drugs or alcohol again. This stage can also involve actively taking steps to obtain the substance, such as driving to a liquor store or contacting your dealer. At this stage, you may even believe that you can use “only a little”