In the throes of drug or alcohol addiction, it’s easy to use substances as a way to cope with stress, negative feelings, or anxious thoughts. After all, these negative self-medication habits led to your addiction in the first place. However, when you’re trying to overcome addiction and maintain your recovery, you need to find healthier alternatives for coping. This is why developing positive self soothing techniques for adults like you trying to turn your lives around is so critical. In fact, it’s key to preventing relapse and keeping life on your terms, not that of drugs or alcohol.
Understanding What It Means to Self-Soothe
The University of Miami defines self-soothing as using techniques to calm yourself after a difficult event or circumstance, such as feeling upset, experiencing trauma, or shock. When you self-soothe, your body shifts away from stress and back into a normal state. When used properly, self-soothing techniques can become ideal coping strategies to regulate your emotions without relying on harmful habits (like drinking or taking drugs) or other people to calm you down. When you apply self soothing techniques to a negative situation, it can bring about a number of benefits, including:
- Emotional Regulation: Self soothing techniques teach you to calm yourself in the wake of overwhelming feelings, stress, or anxiety.
- Resilience: In the face of challenges or adversity, self-soothing techniques can help you stay the course without faltering.
- Better Mental Health: Over time, healthy self-soothing will reduce stress, depression, and anxiety, putting you in a better mental state.
- Increased Self-Awareness: By practicing self-soothing techniques, you can develop a greater sense of your personal addiction triggers and engage in mindfulness.
- Enhanced Relationships: Self-soothing puts you in the driver’s seat. As you develop self-control, you’re less prone to codependency or emotional volatility in relationships.
- Healthier Decision-Making: As you cope in healthier ways, you also get better at thinking more clearly, choosing beneficial behaviors, and responding rationally.
The Impact of Self Soothing Techniques in Recovery
Achieving long-term recovery is a process. You don’t just arrive and remain at recovery for the rest of your life. You have to keep working at it, no matter what. That’s because addiction triggers are always out there, ready to take over your life again if you’re not careful. If you want to avoid drug or alcohol relapse, self soothing techniques can be an important tool in your toolbox. After all, the recovery process still has its highs and lows. When you face future challenges, self-soothing techniques can help you stay the course.
But what’s the secret sauce behind self soothing techniques in recovery? The right techniques can replace any longstanding unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as drug use or drinking alcohol. As you build a habit of using healthy self soothing practices, you can learn to avoid the negative behaviors that have reinforced your addiction.
At the same time, learning to self soothe in a healthy way helps you deal with the uncomfortable parts of sobriety. Over time, you build resilience and mental strength. As a result, you don’t succumb to addictive behaviors or urges when you’re struggling. These skills empower you with increased confidence and self-esteem in your abilities in recovery, leading to a greater likelihood of maintaining long-term recovery.
Self Soothing Techniques for Adults to Use in Addiction Recovery
There are numerous self soothing techniques for adults to adopt along the recovery journey. It’s a good idea to determine which ones fit your lifestyle best and continue to practice them until they become second nature. With that said, here are some key self soothing techniques for adults you can use in your recovery:
Use a Calming Word to Bring You Back
In the heat of negative emotions that could spiral into negative behaviors, what should you do? Adopt a calming word or phrase to bring you back into the present moment. From there, you can recognize the situation for what it is and self-soothe. Think of a word or group of words that make you relaxed or at peace and keep them handy.
Eat Healthy
A key facet of self-care, getting proper nutrition is an important way to self-soothe. Healthy eating habits actually impact your body’s stress response and your overall mood. As you eat right, your body and mind are healthier, strengthening you for the recovery process.
Exercise
The endorphins released when using drugs and alcohol are the same as those released when you exercise. However, exercising actually improves how you feel mentally and physically. Because of this, it’s an exceptional self-soothing technique to practice regularly.
Spend Time With Others
Getting some alone time is OK when coping, but it isn’t sustainable. We need connection with others. Making time to be with friends and loved ones is an important way to self-soothe. Other people can provide essential support needed to keep going when times get challenging.
Go Outside
Considering we offer rehabs in Vermont, going outside is one of the self soothing techniques we know best. Spending time in nature is a simple, consistent way to reduce stress and get key vitamin D simultaneously, too.
More Than Self Soothing Techniques: Find Healing at Sana at Stowe
Self-soothing techniques are a helpful resource along your recovery journey, but they won’t heal your addiction alone. If you’re been struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, you need to address your addiction at the source with professional treatment. At Sana at Stowe in Stowe, VT, we use trauma-informed care and evidence-based treatment to help you heal from addiction (and its root causes) for good. Call us today to start your treatment and reclaim your life.
