People often discount the advantage of a company while in recovery. There is a tendency in recovering addicts to isolate themselves from their loved ones. However, they don’t realise loneliness can prove to be an enemy.
Research and several instances are reported where lack of company leads to relapse. In fact, it is one of the principal factors contributing to relapse. We are here to address the risks of isolation and how to counter this feeling.
Risks of Isolation in recovery
Isolation is commonplace in recovery. Therefore, if you are a recovering addict and going through this phase, do not worry. Whenever we are left alone with nothing but our thoughts, our minds have a way of filling with negative emotions.
Recovery is a difficult phase but isolation is no way of recovering. People often feel that society has ostracised them during their phase of addiction. So, they are not able to gel back into civilization. But, this is not the way to go about it.
Now, this isolation will resurface the feelings of emotional stress and trauma. This trauma leads to temptation. This temptation has the potential to drive your recovery down the drain. Even during recovery where the person has not isolated himself will get these feelings of using drugs.
But, when you are isolated, the tendency of humans goes up by a large margin. If you even take one hit of a substance, your entire recovery will be left meaningless. So, you might be wondering – how do we counter this situation? Let us look at some of the ways, which would allow you to take care of isolation.
Countering Isolation
#1. Keeping in touch: It does not matter what you did, there will always be loved ones who care about you. You should always strive to be in touch with them and not let a gap of communication grow between you. Therefore, always try to be in touch with your loved ones.
#2. Divert your attention: Try to invest your time into something productive or an interest. Since you have a lot of free time, you can use it to learn a new skill, language or exercise.
#3. Writing Journals: Writing journals allows you to have a conversation with yourself. It is a productive habit and will prove to be amazing in the future.