Going through alcohol recovery is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have as someone who has been addicted to drinking in the past. Instead of just suffering through the pain of alcoholism, getting help is a brave and admirable thing to do. Not only are you making your life better for yourself, and you’re improving your health, but you are helping everyone around you that is feeling the side effects of your addiction. By going through alcohol recovery, you can help yourself, your family, and your friends bounce back from this all-consuming illness.
But what will you learn in alcohol recovery that will carry over to your real life? Is it necessary to go through an incipient or outpatient program to really gain the skills needed to come back in “real” life? In short, yes – it is! By going to a reputable rehabilitation facility and learning skills, identifying triggers that cause you to use alcohol, and figuring out coping mechanisms, you can then determine why you are drinking, how to stop your drinking, and what behaviors are harmful in your life.
Let’s see a few of the most useful skills that you can learn in alcohol recovery provided by The Forge Recovery Center that will translate to the outside world.
Useful skills to learn in alcohol recovery!
Identify triggers
One of the main skills that you will learn in alcohol recovery is identifying triggers – figure out who, what, or why you’re drinking. Is there a specific feeling that is causing you to drink alcohol? Do you find that every time you are anxious, sad, depressed, confused, or scared that you go for a drink? Oftentimes, this is because we don’t know how to handle our emotions, we are confused about something that happened, or we are scared about something. By identifying the feelings causing you to drink -and the reasons behind the feelings – you can then identify the triggers of what is making you addicted to alcohol.
Furthermore, if someone is the reason that you are drinking, whether it be someone abusive in your life or someone who is peer pressuring you, you need to identify this person – and remove them from your life.
Learn coping skills
Another useful skill that you can learn in alcohol recovery is the coping skills of how you will “deal” when you feel the need to drink. If you feel the urge to drink – but you’re just out of rehab and you are sober – you need to use your coping skills to figure out how you can get rid of this urge. This is a hard battle to fight, as you will have a strong urge to drink when you are back into the real world. However, the coping skills you learned in alcohol recovery will teach you how to stay calm, make good decisions for your health, and remain sober in tough situations.
Communication skills
Since you will be spending a lot of your time in alcohol recovery in a group or personal therapy, you will improve your communication skills. Has something been bothering you in your life but you didn’t have anyone to talk to about it? Maybe you are a teenager and something is going on in your home life – but you couldn’t talk to a teacher or a therapist. If you are an adult and you are in an abusive relationship, maybe you need to tell someone – but you don’t have the ability.
At alcohol recovery, you have plenty of chances to speak with the group counselors, individual therapists, and doctors to help you figure out why you are drinking. Learning better communication skills is key to being able to identify your concern, fixing the problem, and stay sober for the rest of your life. Not to mention, communication skills in hard circumstances are great skills to have when it comes to interpersonal relationships!
Conclusion
If you are thinking of going to alcohol recovery to get your life back on track, we highly recommend it. Not only will you get clean and sober, but you will learn very useful skills that will translate into the outside world. Going to alcohol recovery can help you identify what is causing you to drink, who is enabling you in your life, and what feelings are evoking negative responses. Furthermore, alcohol recovery will help teach you the necessary coping skills to help you deal with unpleasant situations in the outside world after you are sober.
