You addiction recovery program was very successful, and now that you’ve completed it, you’re interested in ways you can improve your self-esteem after drug addiction recovery. First of all, congratulations! You’ve certainly been through a lot in the past several months. It takes a great deal of courage to turn from a life of addiction to embrace one that’s free from those heavy chains, and you should be commended for your hard work.
Secondly, you’re not alone with how you feel now that your addiction recovery program has come to an end. Many people experience a bit of a low period after getting treatment for drug addiction, and there are a few different reasons for that. Let’s talk about those reasons and then we’ll discuss how you can begin to turn things around for your self-esteem.
Drug Addiction Help
Now that you’ve gotten drug addiction help, you understand what it feels like to be free from drugs. It’s possible that you thought it would be an exhilarated feeling, and while some people do feel that way for a short time, it’s not long before they begin to feel a bit down too. Considering that you’ve just made an incredibly significant change in your life, you can understand how feeling a bit off would be normal. You might not ever feel as “normal” as you did before your addiction took hold, but the good news is that you can absolutely help yourself feel even better after drug addiction recovery.
Tips to Improve Your Self-Esteem After Addiction Treatment
There are several things you can do to improve your self-esteem after addiction treatment. They include:
- 1. Avoid criticizing yourself: We are often our own worst critics. Have you ever noticed how you will give grace to someone else who makes mistakes, but you’ll hold yourself to a higher level of accountability? It’s important to avoid heaping criticism on yourself right after you’ve gotten addiction treatment because that only sows more negativity in your life. Stay positive and give yourself permission to make mistakes or even be wrong sometimes.
- 2. Take life one day at a time: After you’ve completed your addiction recovery program, you might feel compelled to completely overhaul your life. Before you know it, you’ve got a to-do list that’s a mile long and at first you’re accomplishing your goals. After a while, you run out of steam. Avoid being upset when that happens. Take everything one day at a time and reward yourself for your small accomplishments.
- 3. Interact with positive people: Now more than ever, you need positive people to be a part of your life. This is crucial to keeping your spirits up, and with them supporting you, you’ll soon start to rebuild your self-esteem.
- 4. Keep your body active: This is certainly not the time to become a couch potato, although you might feel like it on most days. At first, you might have to force yourself to get up and do things around the house or exercise, but as soon as you do, you’ll start to see a shift in the way you feel.
- 5. Find a way to help others: No matter who you are, it makes you feel good when you can help other people. This might be as simple as bringing in the mail for your elderly neighbor every day, or it might be as involved as volunteering once a week at the local homeless shelter. When you help others, your self-esteem really improves.
Are you in need of drug addiction help? Please contact me to set up an appointment for your consultation.
