4 Ways To Keep Feelings In Check After Opiate Addiction Treatment

Life after opiate addiction treatment is not always smooth sailing. There are times, when you feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. For these reasons, it is advisable to find ways to regulate your emotions.

However, working with emotions would always be challenging for someone who used opioids before. It takes patience, practice and self-awareness to master it.

If you just completed your opiate abuse treatment some days, weeks, months or even years, but still find it difficult to balance your emotions, here are ways to check it:

1. Find a social support. The best place to find a new, sober support network is in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or an alternative AA group. The people that you’ll meet there are not going to judge you, but support your sobriety. They understand your recovery and know what it takes to be in recovery. Your peers there in your group can be your friend who can help you keep your emotions in check. They can also provide you with how well you’re doing in your post- opiate abuse treatment.  When things are becoming a little bit wary, they are also there to remind you to keep your focus on your recovery.

2. Practice mindfulness. Following your opiate addiction treatment, there are times that you’ll be angry and resentful. Don’t worry because it’s normal. However, you should not let these feelings get in the way of your recovery. By practicing meditation or mindfulness, you will be more responsible for your thoughts and actions. You develop control, making you less prone to relapse after the treatment for opiate addiction despite the negative feelings that you feel sometimes.

3. Go to counseling. Even after your opiate addiction treatment, you may still feel guilty about your past actions, behaviors, decisions and thoughts. This may even trigger you to relapse when someone would badly comment about your addiction in the past. However, the guilt that you’re feeling should not hinder you from achieving recovery. The best way to do this is to attend counseling after your stint at the rehab for your opiate abuse cure to address the psychological and emotional issues that are still bothering you.

4. Walk away. When you feel bad and you have lots of worries in your mind, sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away. Walk in the park, drive to the city or visit a new place. Following your opiate addiction cure, you have to practice the coping techniques that you’ve learned in the rehab in difficult situations. Sometimes it just takes some minutes to feel better again.