If you have been exploring admissions for a treatment center that offers outpatient recovery it’s important to know what to expect. You need to be aware of the skills required to successfully complete an outpatient recovery program.
Identifying High-Risk Situations
A critical skill that you must master for outpatient recovery from addiction is how to identify and effectively avoid situations that can be classed as high-risk. These situations make it more likely that you will crave drugs or potentially even relapse.
The triggers are always going to be different for each individual and some situations are not avoidable. However, understanding the situations that will trigger you is empowering and can be a critical element of intensive outpatient support. Outpatient support will mean that you are at home with your family so you are more likely to be exposed to triggering situations.
Reaching Out
Another skill you must learn if you are completing an outpatient recovery is how to reach out to the people around you. This could be your family, your friends, or the treatment center that is helping you on your road to recovery. One of the challenges of reaching out is that it will always make you vulnerable. You need to embrace this vulnerability and learn to understand that people want to help you not judge you.
Reaching out for support also requires you to be honest and this is something that can be particularly challenging as addiction has likely trained you to lie. Telemedicine services provide ways to reach out to your therapist without direct forms of interaction.
Coping With Triggers
As mentioned, you can not always avoid situations that are challenging or difficult during your recovery from addiction. Instead, you need to learn the skills that will allow you to cope with these situations and deal with the cravings that you may face. At Louisville Addiction Treatment Center, we strive to help patients ask the key questions that they need to. This will help ensure that you get through situations where you will be tempted to use because you are not being honest about your emotions.
Self Care
Another skill that you must learn for outpatient recovery is self-care. Part of outpatient recovery is helping clients understand what self-care looks like and the key elements that play a part in helping clients look after themselves. While there will always be help for clients, the aim of outpatient recovery is to help clients get used to standing on their own two feet.
Setting Personal Goals
Finally, setting personal goals is another essential skill for outpatient recovery from addiction. Years of addictive behavior can leave people feeling helpless and make them forget about their goals. But by setting goals, clients have something that they can focus on and build towards. It also gives their life the meaning that it may have been lacking in the past.
We hope this helps you understand some of the essential skills that are required for outpatient recovery. By gaining these skills, you will be in a stronger position to beat your addiction and get your life back on track.