Aftercare For Your Emotions: How To Manage Your Feelings Without Alcohol Or Drugs

Every step you take within your recovery can lead you further along the path of maintaining your sobriety one day at a time. Decisions should be made carefully, but emotions can sometimes surface that tempt you to take impulsive actions. Be proactive to set yourself up for success by ensuring you know how to manage the wide array of feelings you may experience on a day-to-day basis that may sometimes threaten to derail the progress you've made. Be a champion for yourself and your sobriety, and keep the following methods in mind.

Enter an Addiction Center

If you are at the beginning of your sobriety, currently trying to get sober, or struggling to stay sober, you may benefit from entering an addiction center like Lifeline. The care that you can receive in an addiction treatment center will be thorough and designed to help you get or stay sober. It can also be customized to meet your needs and help manage your emotional difficulties.

Allow Your Feelings to Simply Be

It's very important to keep in mind that feelings are not facts, and the best and worst feelings will pass. So will all those feelings in between. Allow them to come and go while reminding yourself that this, too, will pass. Drugs and alcohol may numb emotions for a while, but they just make you less emotionally healthy. Ask your therapist for help with allowing your feelings to be if this is something that you struggle with on an ongoing basis.

Distract Yourself When Necessary

While you do need to have a healthy perspective about your feelings, sometimes you need to refrain from focusing on the bad ones that can rain down on you during tough times. If you feel that you cannot tolerate a negative emotion, try to distract yourself until it passes. You may try the following things:

  • Go for a walk while listening to your favorite music.
  • Call up a sponsor or a friend who is willing to talk about your problems or something else entirely.
  • Schedule an extra session of substance abuse counseling.
  • Take a class in something new or learn a new skill from watching online videos.
  • Ask for help if you need it. If you are in an emergency situation, you can even go to a hospital and explain your mental health emergency to receive help.

Finally, keep in mind that you should not take things as they come without a game plan. You need to plan for sobriety and anticipate worst case scenarios in order to protect yourself from potential pitfalls. Yes, it's important to take things one day a time, but that's much easier to do when you set yourself up for success by managing your feelings and taking care of yourself.


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