Staying Motivated in Recovery

Sticking to healthy habits can help alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety and decrease bad moods. Getting enough sleep, exercise, and water and fueling our bodies with healthy foods can help us feel good both physically and mentally. A well-known quote in Alcoholics Anonymous is, “To keep it, you must give it away.” Helping others who are struggling can give people hope and strength to continue with their own recovery. It allows people to recognize where they are and how far they have come in their journey. It could be as little as offering a ride to a meeting or setting up chairs and making coffee, or it could be as much as becoming a sponsor or acting as a guest speaker at a local event.

Motivation is believed to be a strong factor in the potential outcome of rehabilitation from substance abuse and can even predict the success of recovery. The Reasons for Quitting (RFQ) Questionnaire, developed for smoking cessation, has since been adapted for other forms of addiction. The RFQ identifies intrinsic motivation factors, such as concerns about health and self-concept issues, and extrinsic motivation factors, like legal issues and social influence. Without that personal motivation, they would not make the decision to fight their addiction. Staying motivated by the reasons that drive you toward treatment is key to maintaining sobriety long enough to reach the happiness of living a life of recovery. The goal of obtaining and keeping motivation to recover is therefore linked to what intrinsically motivates you towards change.

Scientific Progress in Fighting Addiction: Deep Brain Stimulation

Instead, focus on yourself and always remember that you are unique and special in your own way. You have the motivation inside of yourself to steer your life in a new and better direction, but in order to get there, you must believe that change is possible through your own individual strength. Starting over is extremely scary and there will be times when you want nothing more than to go back to old habits. However, in order to stay motivated to recover, you must begin to find intrinsic motivation in yourself.

It is no secret that choosing to embark on the path of recovery is not easy. It is important to acknowledge that these feelings are normal, and they are bound to occur from time to time. There are many treatment centers in Massachusetts that can help with different substance use issues, such as a binge drinking disorder or drug addiction.

Consider these four ways to find inspiration during your recovery journey:

Building a supportive sober network around yourself is a great way to keep up motivation. This may include supportive friends, family members, therapists, and 12-Step group peers. Various triggers in your life may exhaust you and drain the pool of inner motivation. However, if you talk about them with your therapists, friends, and other 12-Step members, they can release their power over you. As time passes, it can be easy to forget our beginning struggles and the reasons we had for wanting to get sober.

• Many people turn to a higher power for motivation to overcome drug misuse.
• It can be fun and relaxing to go out for drinks with your friends on Friday nights after a long work week or have a cocktail before bed.
• Let’s say the road is five miles long, and you want to reach the end.
• In the action stage, an individual has started to implement behavioral strategies to change their drinking problem.

When life gets hard, you will need to stay focused on what you want. You will need to eliminate all the distractions keeping you from your goals. Statistics show about a 40-60% relapse rate in addiction recovery. This is comparable to the relapse rate for other chronic diseases like diabetes (30-50%) and hypertension (50-70%).

Finding Motivation for Addiction Recovery

The importance of motivation in recovery is often built by finding the internal strength to want to recover. All around you, you may be getting feedback from friends, family, doctors, and peers telling you why you have to recover, but this journey is yours to make and ultimately rests on you. It begins with you building your internal motivation to want to recover for no one else besides yourself. Recovery from a substance use disorder (SUD) is a long and often discouraging process. It is easy to lose hope and slip into relapse without the proper motivation to keep you striving for a brighter future. Finding this motivation is not always simple, but when you do, it can be one of the most important factors in your recovery.

In addition, your personal relationships with friends and loved ones likely suffered during your addiction. For example, addiction can be worsened by peer pressure (extrinsic motivation) or the need to pursue a pleasurable feeling (intrinsic motivation). Meanwhile, your success during recovery can be strengthened by developing relationships with https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/5-tips-of-how-to-maintain-recovery-motivation/ others (extrinsic motivation) and by the desire to live a healthier, more productive life (intrinsic motivation). The key is to maintain the motivation to pursue recovery, outweighing your earlier motivations to remain dependent on your substance of choice. Your core values may include good health, sobriety, and the importance of family.

Work a 12-step program

It can be anything from your family, career, partner, health, pets, learning new things, or even starting over completely. In addition to this, staying motivated in alcohol rehab involves tracking your progress, being realistic about your expectations, and allowing yourself the compassion to keep moving forward if you slip up. Studies on motivation rarely identify peer relationships within service settings as important motivators to sustain recovery over time. However, focus group participants felt relationships within SLHs were potent motivators for continued sobriety. Fellow peers provided a level of understanding and support that to a large degree was viewed as uniquely supportive.

If PAWS is severe or if you’re experiencing prolonged symptoms, a medical professional can help you work through them and remain in recovery without relapse. The symptoms involved in PAWS can be a barrier to recovery if you’re not careful. In addition to being able to recognize them, it’s important to know when to seek help. However, research suggests that while 12-step groups are effective, people often don’t continue their involvement at beneficial levels over the long term.