Life After Cocaine Rehab: Rebuilding Confidence and Control

Life after cocaine rehab will be different. It will be a life free from the shackles of addiction and all the negative aspects that go with it. There will be bumps along the way, but recovery is worth it. Let our expert addictions clinicians give you their insights.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have addictions clinicians who have decades of experience helping people caught up in the madness of addiction. If you need Free Clinician Drug Advice call for Free Cocaine Addiction Help. All calls are treated in the strictest of confidence and all advice is free.

Cocaine is not a party drug. Sure, you might be introduced to it at a social gathering, but after a time, you will find yourself with a dealer on speed dial and your bank balance plummeting. Your relationships will suffer and you might loose your job. While you might get away with a damaged nose, Cocaine is a killer: make no mistake. Recovery is not only possible but most of the staff who work in rehab centres are in recovery, usually from Cocaine.

Going into rehab is an essential part of the recovery trajectory, but is not the whole story. It certainly puts you on to the next segment of your recovery pathway but if you leave rehab without keeping your commitment to recovery relapse becomes more of a threat. Sure, there will be those who simply finish the residential element and don’t carry on with meetings and support but this is definitely an exception to the rule. A detox is only the start.

Life After Cocaine Rehab

Rehab is not just about abstinence. It is about healing. Addiction is not a choice but a consequence of trying to escape from reality. Cocaine is very easily accessible and a lot cheaper than it used to be. It is often seen as a middle class endeavour so as to give it an air of superiority.

Addiction is an equal opportunities disease and cares not how much you earn, your skin colour or if you are the CEO of a multi million pound company or a zero hours shelf stacker.

In rehab you will learn new skills. Through group work, individual therapy sessions and psychoeducation you will be equipped to process your emotions and be ready for situations that would lead others to use.

The skills you learn will help you to make more positive decisions, enhance your ability to deal with high stress situations and how to deal with situations where others are using or when you are invited to use.

Rehab is hard work. You are not going to a retreat and neither are you going to a health farm! You are going to have to face up to difficult emotions as these will be the underlying cause of your addiction. As you do this you will become empowered to manage your emotions in a more positive way.

Post Rehab

When you leave rehab the pathway to lifelong abstinence is to continue to learn and develop. Personal growth is not confined to rehab. Through going to meetings (12 STEP/SMART/eclectic) you will have a ready group of likeminded people who know what addiction is like and have made a commitment to stay abstinent.

When you first start at a group after rehab you might be nervous, but fear not. Everyone there has been where you are. While everyone’s experience in addiction is different, there are a lot of commonalities. If you slip up, the group will be there to hold you. When you have things to celebrate, they will be there join in the celebration. In time , you may want to take a more pivotal role in the group to pass on what you have learned.

Life After Cocaine Rehab

Goals:

When you set goals before leaving rehab, these should bot be confined to staying away from cocaine. The addiction that was holding you back is gone and, while you can not turn back the clock, you have the rest of your life in front of you, but now without the shackles of addiction.

Addiction numbs your thoughts, suppresses your desires, hopes and dreams. When you are free and your brain chemistry returns to normal you can start to plan for the future.

In recovery you may want to switch direction in life. You may want to study, travel, pursue a new career. You will have a new sense of purpose and without the distraction of addiction: Anything is possible. Often, in addiction, you abandon your hobbies, friends and pursuits. Recovery gives you the opportunity to go back to them.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have addictions clinicians who have decades of experience helping people caught up in the madness of addiction. If you need Free Clinician Drug Advice call for Free Cocaine Addiction Help. All calls are treated in the strictest of confidence and all advice is free.

Life After Cocaine Rehab

Celebrating Milestones

Recognising your successes in recovery is really important. It reminds you of where you were and where you are now. How far you have come. Anything you plan to do and complete demonstrates your victory over addiction. Any little success will serve as a source of motivation.

Rebuilding relationships

Addiction affects your family, friends, loved ones and work colleagues. You may have damaged these relationships while in active addiction yet with effort and your new skills, you can rebuild these.

You will have to face the reality of the damage you caused. The missed appointments, the dishonesty, the mistruths. However, relationships can be recovered, even strengthened. You will need to be open and honest and speak up when you are struggling. Check in with people: It makes you accountable and provides them with reassurance.

Often, family therapy can help. Family members can really benefit from a space to confront their fears, hopes and aspirations for you and express their concerns. This space is neutral and non-judgemental. Family therapy can be hard work but the fact that you and your loved ones demonstrates everyone’s commitment. It may have been a family member who first noticed you had a problem and confronted you about it.

Relapse Prevention

Relapse happens. It doesn’t happen to everyone but it is not to be seen as failure. Sure, it is a unwelcomed experience but being able to overcome relapse and get back on a trajectory of recovery is what it is all about.

In rehab you will learn many different techniques to help you when stressful situations come about. It is when people are stressed that they go to their go to. Use your breathing techniques, your distraction techniques. Go to a meeting, call someone from your support group. Use the aftercare service at your rehab centre. Book a therapy session. There are so many different things you can do to prevent relapse.

Exercise, good nutrition may seem simple, but are proven to help reduce cravings and prevent relapse. It is also important to take stock of your recovery at regular intervals. Maybe a journal entry on the last day of each month.

Life After Cocaine Rehab

If you understand what factors initiate relapse, you will be better equipped to navigate around them. You may want to revisit your mental toolkit , that you built in rehab, by speaking to peers at support groups and your therapist.

Having purpose is essential. You may be in work, you might be a student, retired, a volunteer: It matters not. If you have something to get out of bed for and something that tires you out so you can’t wait to get into bed a night, you will find relapse prevention less difficult. Having purposeful activity shifts the focus away from Cocaine use.

Life after rehab is about remaining committed to your recovery. It is about chasing new dreams, not chasing your dealer. It is about open and honest relationships not deceit and lies. Recovery is about the future: Addiction was in the past.

Use the tools you learned in rehab. Stay connected through support groups and your rehab centre aftercare provision. If you do relapse, speak up! Get help: You are now part of a recovery bubble and others will want to help just as you will when you support others.

Life After Cocaine Rehab

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have addictions clinicians who have decades of experience helping people caught up in the madness of addiction. If you need Free Clinician Drug Advice call for Free Cocaine Addiction Help. All calls are treated in the strictest of confidence and all advice is free.

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