How to recover from cocaine abuse can seem like an impossible task when struggling with the addiction. Sobriety is possible with the right environment, treatment, and support system. Even if you have relapsed, sobriety is possible. By identifying pitfalls and making positive changes, relapse can be avoided.
Step One of How to Recover from Cocaine Abuse
The first step to recovering from cocaine abuse is to choose sobriety. It may sound obvious, but real change cannot happen until this decision is made. Once you have chosen sobriety, you will need to look at several areas of your life to decide if more decisions need to be made.
- How do you deal with stress? If you deal with stress through substance abuse, you will need to learn new coping skills. Meditation, journaling, and group therapy can help.
- Are others in your life using cocaine or other drugs? If so, it may be time to hang out with new friends.
- How do you feel about yourself? Often drug abuse happens because of low self-esteem or wanting to fit into a group of people. Learning to accept yourself is important to keeping sober.
Step Two of How to Recover from Cocaine Abuse
It is normal to want to change but struggle with the cravings and wish to use. Help yourself stay firm in your resolve by writing pros and cons of quitting. List everything possible including the cost of cocaine, how it affects you and your family, and how it affects your job.
Then ask those close to you how your cocaine use affects them. It may be difficult to hear how your substance abuse affects others, but it helps to strengthen resolve to stay sober.
Step Three of How to Recover from Cocaine Abuse
Look at past attempts at recovery. What happened that caused you to relapse? Write about events that happened before you used cocaine again. This event log will help you find events and situations that cause you to want to use cocaine. Once you know these patterns, you can create a plan of recovery to help you manage the events when they happen. That plan may include staying away from specific people or places until your sobriety is firmly rooted.
Share the lists from steps one through three with your therapist, sponsor, or doctor. They can help you create plans to manage cravings, events, and situations that lead to relapse.
Step Four of How to Recover from Cocaine Abuse
Recovery is hard work. To be successful, you need to have the right environment, treatment, and support system. Tell your family and friends you want to get sober and need their help. Be specific with what you want. If you need your family to remind you not to go to a certain friend’s house when you talk about him, tell them. If you need your friends to go with you to yoga class to manage pain, ask!
People may not be as supportive as you need. Perhaps they have been hurt by your attempts at recovery. Be gentle with them and yourself. If you do not have a supportive environment where you are, consider inpatient rehab. Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) give plenty of support in a restrictive environment to help you get stable before returning to less supportive places.
Step Five of How to Recover from Cocaine Abuse
Regardless of the recovery treatment you choose, ask your therapist to create a continuous care plan. This is a recovery plan for treatment after detox and therapy are complete. Sobriety is hard work and does not end with 30,60, or 90 days of treatment. It is a lifelong commitment. So plan to create support groups to help you stay sober.
Ready to Take a Step towards Sobriety?
Learning how to recover from cocaine abuse need not be hard. Aion Recovery in Southern Florida can give you a safe place to understand why you abuse cocaine and how to stop. Call Aion Recovery at 888-811-2879.
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