Journaling is a great way to process your recovery. It gives you the opportunity to vent about things that upset you in a productive way that doesn’t hurt your chances of making the situation better, explore your feelings about different options and future possibilities and to work through issues related drug and alcohol addiction recovery. Here are a few journaling ideas to get you started after drug rehab:

• Ask yourself a question. Pick a theoretical question, any question, and run with it. Does God exist? Is chocolate and marshmallow as good as chocolate and peanut butter? Is attitude important in getting what you want in the world? Whatever your question, explore your thoughts on the issue.
• Make a to-do list. Whether it’s a list for the grocery store, errands you need to run, people you need to call, or a combination, if you’ve got your journal with you, you may as well use it to help you get things done.
• Work the steps. If you attend 12-step meetings, journals are a great resource as you work the steps. You are often asked to assess your part in a particular issue or list people you need to make amends to or to explore past events. Even after you’ve worked the steps, you can always revisit the 4^th step or others that held meaning for you when the situation arises.
• Vent about something that bothers. Irritations will happen. People will piss you off. Rather than taking it out on them and making the situation worse, vent about it in your journal. It’s a much better outlet than relapsing.
• Talk about what happened in therapy. Personal therapy and group therapy sessions are great resources in recovery. Each session can give you a lot of food for thought. It will help you to make progress in your treatment as you work through what was discussed, be able to look back on what has happened in sessions, and create a plan for future sessions.
• Map out a budget. Money is of constant concern to most people, but when you’re in recovery is can be a high-priority focus. Use your journal to map out your budget and figure out how to manage your money now that you aren’t spending every cent on drugs and alcohol.
• Draw. Drawing pictures of what you see around you or abstract pictures that define your thoughts can be extremely therapeutic. Use your journal to draw with pencils, inks or even experiment with watercolors.
• Take pictures. Photography offers the same therapeutic effect as drawing and writing. Explore your view of the world and include some of your favorite shots in your journal.

Women are creative beings and using journals to explore different modes of creativity is an a great way to discover your authentic self in recovery. How will you use your journal to progress after drug and alcohol rehab? 

Real life is a part of life after drug or alcohol rehab. As a recovering drug addict, you’ve probably being working hard to get back to everyday living. Sometimes, you may wonder what you get in return for your frustration. Don’t worry, this feeling is normal. You may face some challenges, but getting through them is what will make your real life worth living in the weeks, months and years following alcohol or drug rehab.

Develop Healthy Routines

Your daily routines may seem boring and tedious at first. But as you get used to them, they will become your best friends. You can rely on them because you know what to expect. Even the little routines give your day a sort of gentle rhythm and security.

You’re going to have ups and downs each day. Some days or weeks will be better than others, but your routines carry you forward. They are the steady bedrock of your day.

Face Your Fantasy World

We all have a fantasy world we’d like to escape to. You wake up to a spotless home each morning. Supper is always made and your children are well-behaved. Your bank account is strong and you have a youthful glow about you every day.

Well, you may hit a few of those once in a while, but probably not all the time. If you spend a lot of time getting caught up in your “if only” fantasy you might have trouble facing the best parts of your actual real life.

You might be sweaty and ache all over, but you get to appreciate the splendor of finishing up a personal project. Maybe you planted a garden patch, fixed a crooked door, or bake a tasty dessert. You have that personal joy for yourself and to share with others. The deep satisfaction that comes from this experience is yours for the taking in real life, and much better than any fantasy in the long run.

Ease Into Real Life Again

You may have been able to juggle a lot before you entered rehab. Don’t fall into that trap now. You can do your multi-tasking later on. Now is the time to establish your foundation. You need to focus on keeping your stress levels manageable. And to do that, you need to keep things realistic and consistent.

Go to support meeting, get rest, eat well, get a little exercise, get a little social time, and go to work (if you work). Do the basics well for a while, and then you can start taking on more challenges.

Getting Back To Real Life After Rehab Treatment

It’s time to get back into real life. You can stay sober and start getting your life back one day at a time. Drug treatment and alcohol rehab are great for starting your sobriety. But at some point, you have to live well on your own. Remember to get some good routines going, beware of your escape fantasies, and take it easy on yourself.

Coping skills are essential for a woman in addiction recovery. Life is full of change and adjustment, and a good set of coping skills can keep you on track through it all. Here’s another set of critical skills you need to stay sober during recovery.

Keep Your Body and Mind Healthy

When your body doesn’t feel good, it’s tough for your mood to stay up. Bad sleep, a poor diet, and lots of stress can make you feel really run down. When this happens, you tend to feel irritable and impatient. This process can snowball if you don’t make some changes. You can easily start seeking the quick-fix comfort of drugs and alcohol when you feel like this.

Don’t set yourself up for relapse with unhealthy habits. Create a realistic daily schedule that allows for plenty of sleep. Make healthy food choices and get the junk food out of your house. If you need help figuring out your diet, call your drug rehab center, your doctor, or a friend who can teach you to cook. Make time every day for physical exercise. Exercise will help you feel stronger, boost your mood, and help your sleep.

Update Your Recovery Plan As Your Life Changes

Recovery plans are only good if they still make sense in your daily life. You are not going to be the same person between day one of your recovery and day 365. You’ll change one way or another, and your recovery plan needs to change with you.

As time passes, you may need more, less, or simply different kinds of support. When you update your recovery plan on a regular basis, you make sure your sobriety is always in forward motion.

Stay Connected With Other Women in Recovery

When you are in addiction recovery, a build-up of emotional distress can feel overwhelming. Women in recovery tend to isolate themselves when they are feeling an overload. Fear and uncertainty don’t have to shut you down. Resist the urge to hide from the world. Call just one person you trust to pull you out of it.

Get with your network of sober women and get the natural mood lift you need. These ladies have all had struggles during their recovery, and they will help you through yours. Someday, you’ll be the one who helps another woman through her tough times. Women in recovery are each other’s best supporters.

Getting Through Addiction Recovery

You can make it through the ups and down of addiction recovery. Keep yourself healthy, update your recovery plan, and always stay connected with other women in recovery. These essential coping skills can make the difference between relapse and sobriety.

Sobriety and addiction recovery may seem like the same thing on paper. But in practice, they can be quite different. Sobriety means someone isn’t using drugs or alcohol. Addiction recovery is about an entire lifestyle change. As a woman with an addiction, you need to know where you stand. Are you in addiction recovery, or are you just sober?

Who Are You As A Woman

What kind of woman are you now? What kind of woman do you want to be? If you have been addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may have been dodging these questions for a long time.

When you don’t quite know who you are, you have two choices - keep running away or face the situation and dig deeper for more answers. A woman who is not ready to embrace recovery will constantly avoid these questions. She could be stone sober and still not really be in recovery.

You don’t need to have perfect answers to these questions. They are part of every woman’s lifelong identity process. You just need to be willing to face the questions throughout your life. That takes an act of courage, and that’s what moves you in recovery mode.

Listen To Your Mental Chatter

What’s your mental chatter saying to you? Does it take notice of your strengths and gifts, or does it scold and belittle you? Does it lift you up or make negative comparisons between you and others?

You’re a bad mother. You’ll never amount to anything like your sister. You’re a lousy daughter (or wife, or friend).

If you are just sober, you may not know what to do with these thoughts. They may trigger all kinds of emotions, sending you on a roller coaster every day. You might find other things to obsess about so your mind can’t focus on those awful words.

Face The Discomfort Of Your Emotions

When you are in recovery, you’ll still hear those things. But instead of ignoring them, you pay attention like you were a detective. How do those words affect me? Where do those phrases come from? Do I have to believe them every time I hear them? What else could I be saying to myself instead?

What’s the difference here? With sobriety, you just react in the moment. It hurts, so you turn away. In addiction recovery, you stay with the hurt for a while so you can change the process. You acknowledge the presence of these thoughts, but you refuse to accept the negativity. Then you do something positive to change your mood. Those thoughts may be there, but they don’t control you.

Stay well-supported when you deal with negative self-talk. Facing these feelings can be tough for a while. With practice, this gradually becomes easier and less stressful.

Sobriety and Addiction Recovery

When you go to drug rehab, the first task is to get you sober. You need the chemicals out of your body so you can start fresh. Sobriety can come fairly quickly, but true recovery can take a lifetime. Take a look at yourself today and make sure you are in recovery mode.

Most people don’t realize when an addiction starts to take over. They ignore the signs and pretend it isn’t changing their life. Don’t let this happen during your addiction recovery. Stay on top of it by developing and using good coping skills. As a woman, you have unique recovery needs. Use the following tips to help you throughout your recovery.

Avoid Situations With High Risk

It’s a lot easier to prevent a bad situation than to get yourself out of one. Recognize high risk when you see it, and you can keep your sobriety intact more easily. Hanging around the wrong friends, being around a lot of stress, or trying to squeeze too much into your schedule can overload your mind and emotions.

You can only take so much before you start looking for ways to escape. Avoiding high-risk situations is a lot easier when you spend time around people with a healthy lifestyle. You have fewer opportunities to get yourself into trouble and your mindset will be focused on positive living.

Find Healthy Ways To Manage Your Emotions

Everyone needs to cope with difficult emotions when they come up. Most women are a more emotionally expressive than men. Women also tend to be more sensitive to emotional fluctuations and lack of harmony in a group. Before your recovery days, you would have used drugs and alcohol to cope with intense feelings before your recovery.

You’ll have a big gap in your life when you stop using drugs and alcohol. Fill that empty spot with better positive habits. Go for a walk, talk to a good friend, do some practical physical activities to quiet your mind, or listen to music. If you can distract yourself in a healthy way, your emotions will calm down sooner and you’ll lower your relapse risk.

Give Yourself Regular Reality Checks

You did a lot to avoid reality when you were actively using drugs. To shake this habit, you need to keep in touch with the truth every day. Spend time around people who will be real with you. Take notice of your own improvements, write those down, and make sure you read those daily. Learn to accept genuine compliments from others who see your progress.

Own up to the negative realities as well. Instead of making an excuse, acknowledge where you went wrong and do your best to make it right. Learn how to accept difficult things you can’t change. You can learn a lot more about yourself when you stay honest every day.

More Coping Skills For Women In Recovery

We have more coping skills for you to learn about. Come back for the next post on this topic to read about more essential ways to prevent relapse.