Addiction Treatment: 5 Goals To Aim For After Recovery

Whether you’re currently in an addiction treatment program or you’re planning on attending one in the future, it’ll help you to plan ahead to the time you complete the program. Life will be different once you’re cut addiction from your life, so setting some short and long-term goals can help you remain sober and free down the road.

Once you’ve completed treatment, you may have a lot more time on your hands. You may feel more energetic, have some clarity, and be excited about your future. With these things in mind, as you move forward, it may do you some good to set some goals for yourself once you’ve got some solid footing in recovery. After all, you want to avoid becoming bored or return to old patterns.

Happiness experts will tell you that those who have active goals in their lives and are proactive toward accomplishing them tend to be happier. They also feel more confident and secure in their every day lives.

Now that’s something you’d probably really enjoy, right?

Here are 5 goals you can implement in your recovery to help you grow mind, body, and spirit, fostering a solid recovery and boost your happiness level:

Carve Out A Recovery Plan

To continue on the path of recovery sober and clean, it’s important that you determine to stay on the path. You can do this by coming up with a recovery plan, spelling out just how you plan to keep recovery important in your life. Maybe you can commit to attending a certain number of 12 Step meetings per week and working through the steps with your sponsor.

Or perhaps you will commit to attending counseling for a certain period of time to work on underlying issues. Going through a season of professional counseling can help strengthen your recovery, as well as work out other issues that you may be struggling with in life.

What kinds of things will help you stay on your path? What’s a solid plan you can navigate from here on out? Write them down and put them in a place you see often to serve as a reminder, so that you can stay on the straight and narrow.

Find A New Hobby Or Two

Chances are now that you are in recovery, you’ve got some free time on your hands. Too much free time may lead to boredom, which could be a trigger to start abusing alcohol or drugs again. Be sure that you’re paying attention to how you’re feeling. To combat boredom, think about picking up a new hobby or two. This gives you a chance to rediscover who you are without alcohol or drugs and find out what types of activities you enjoy at this point in your life.

Maybe you’ve been putting off things like painting, woodworking, playing a sport, hiking, fishing, etc. There are plenty of enjoyable hobbies for you to choose from! If you need some help, do a simple Google search on hobbies and see what resonates with you.

Rebuild Relationships

While you were in active addiction, you may have burned some relationship bridges. Now that you’re in recovery, you can make it a goal to rebuild such relationships. Take inventory of how your relationships are to those closest to you. If there is strain, do your best to begin rebuilding such relationships.

Be patient, as sometimes it takes loved ones some time to heal once they’ve been hurt. They may not be quite ready to move forward and trust you 100% at first, but over time as you put your best foot forward, they may come around. As you practice patience and consistency, you’ll be able to form more solid, trustable relationships.

Work On Your Emotional Sobriety

One you put the alcohol or drugs down, chances are you’ll have some negative emotions pop up that you’ve been stuffing for a while. You may begin to feel emotions like anger, depression, anxiety, regret, shame, etc. A wonderful goal after recovery is to work on healing old wounds and boosting your emotional sobriety. Oftentimes this is done via counseling or through working the 12 Steps in AA or NA.

Knowing ahead of time that you may contend with these may prompt you to be ready to implement some sort of therapeutic modality in order to work through such issues. For some people, working a 12 Step recovery program diligently with a sponsor helps them heal and grow emotionally over time.

Work the 12 Steps Regularly

Whether you attend 12 Step meetings or not, it’s advantageous to work the 12 Steps of AA or NA because a lot of personal growth can occur by doing such. If for some reason, you cannot attend meetings, you can order a workbook and work on each step regularly on your own. Feel free to ask a mentor to allow you to discuss the steps with them after you complete each one. There are also some online meetings you can attend. Many reports that working the 12 Steps is a powerful experience for them.

Addiction Recovery Is Possible

Regardless of what you may have become addicted to, recovery from addiction is possible. Combining treatment modalities like addiction rehab, professional counseling, and support groups can be very helpful in getting free from addiction and creating the kind of life you truly desire.

Congratulations on getting on the road of recovery. The hard work will pay off. Consider implementing these goals into your life and others that seem like a fit for you. Contemplating and writing down goals is a powerful process. Those that actually take the time to write their goals down have a much higher chance at accomplishing them. As you are proactive in your life when it comes to addiction treatment and working on goals, you’ll notice that you feel stronger and more balanced, which will certainly help you facilitate long-term recovery.

Categories:

Contact Us

If you need help or have any questions about us contact us right away.

Back To Top