Apr 9, 2015 | By Tim Powers

Tips For Surviving Your First 30 Days In Recovery

Recovery

I need to admit something, the first 30 days of recovery kinda sucked; well, it REALLY, REALLY sucked.

I couldn’t complain about my physical self because I felt awesome. Being able to clear away years of toxic debris from my system and being able to eat healthy certainly made me feel I could run a marathon, climb a mountain, or beat 29 other guys in an over-the-top rope Royal Rumble.

My mental state, however, was another matter.

I was a wreck in my mind and my grey matter was like a sloppy pile of emotional goulash. I was different, but my neighborhood was the same, my friends were the same, my town and world were the same. I was a raw walking nerve experiencing a white knuckle rollercoaster ride trying to live day to day.

I hated it and my thought bubble was full of bleeps, symbols and fuck-its. Then I remembered something….

I GOT THIS (AND SO DO YOU!!)

If you are reading this, maybe you are new to recovery and can relate to the picture painted above. You might feel like you are hammering a square peg into a round hole and bashing your head against a wall, but like they said around the tables “this too shall pass.” It takes time for you to adjust to a life of recovery and you are going to feel scattered, angry and on edge.

No matter what, you gotta keep pushing. Allowing these feelings and thoughts to build up and collect interest can eventually lead you back to the drinking and drugging madness that made your life a mess in the first place.

In order to make it through the first 30 days of recovery, you need some important tools to help you through the peaks and valleys. Check out the following tips and suggestions to get your own ideas flowing.

Get People In Your Support Group

Support is everything in recovery. Whether is it your peeps in your 12-step group, family members or supportive friends, you need to get them in your corner. These people can motivate you to keep going and prop you up when the stinkin’ thinkin’ starts rearing its ugly head.

Get phone numbers, pop by for a visit and make it a point to reach out to them even just to say hi. That contact and support makes a big difference. When other people who care about you know what is going on in your life, the journey won’t feel so lonely.

Write It Out – Self Reflection Is Helpful

Get hip to journaling. It is a great way to vent frustrations. When the feelings arise, grab a notebook and pen and go to town. Write what’s on your mind and don’t censor it; the goal is to let out all of your negative juju until you start feeling some positivity flowing. Spit out some poetry or a rhyme, doodle, create a cartoon – whatever you need to let the steam loose. Once you are done, keep it in your notebook, post it on your refrigerator or frame it and hang it on the wall.

Get Physical – Feel The Buuuurnn

Exercise is awesome. It whips your muscles into shape, gets your cardio fine tuned and it releases those beautiful endorphins that give you the genuine warm fuzzies. The great thing about exercise is that it really doesn’t have to cost you any money. Sure, you can get a gym membership, but simply going for a nice 30 minute walk each day gives the same benefit. Additionally, exercise can be social and helps you get out of yourself. Grab a few buds for a pickup basketball game, grab a friend and do yoga or go play tennis…the sky’s the limit.

Focus on the Now

Dwelling on the past will do you no good. What’s done is done and the only thing you can control is what you are doing right now. What can do you this very moment? Be in the present moment and focus your energies on creating good things within that moment.

Meditation is a great way to train your brain to focus on the now and you don’t have to wear robes and twist your body into weird positions to do it. Find a quiet spot with no distractions and give yourself fifteen minutes daily to just focus on your breath and your being.

Rationalizing is the Devil

No matter how little or long you have in recovery, addiction has a way of making us rationalize and justify past behavior as being acceptable. If you start having thoughts like “hey, I have a month clean…what’s one drink?” or “you know, I can handle it” your addict ego is knocking at the door and it ain’t the Girl Scouts selling cookies.

When thoughts like that arise, it is important to remember the negative consequences of your use and play that in a loop. Romanticizing your addict past in dangerous and a slippery slope back into the land of relapse.

You Gotta Fake It Until You Make It

Image source via huffington post

Getting through the first month of recovery can be hard, but using the tips above and finding your own ways to beat back the nasties of addictive thought can get you through those trying times. Your recovery is what you want it to be. Be your own Bob Ross and paint your own happy trees and fluffy white clouds. In order to paint your recover masterpiece you need tools and if those tools don’t work find some other tools that will work. When the going gets tough, remember this:

“It works if you work it, so work it cause you’re worth it.“