Just like with everything, recovery is a step-by-step process that is at its most efficient when it can be tracked and monitored. Setting realistic goals for your recovery and celebrating milestones of your journey will allow you to reflect on progress and make changes that will help you enormously down the road! Studies indicate that keeping a simple log of your days is a great way to start with tracking progress. Recording feelings and emotions when you wake up, when you start your day, at lunchtime, dinnertime, and before going to bed should give you a good range of information to start with. Then, recording any new experiences, avoided triggers, or different environments encountered on a daily basis will allow you to gauge how those emotions are triggered or stimulated. After starting a consistent practice of journaling, it’s important to secure activities that will allow you to document your recovery in ways that allow you to create and attain goals. These types of activities often include group support sessions, regular counseling sessions, and what are considered “aftercare programs”– or programs that encourage you to maximize the efficiency of your recovery process. These programs place a premium on starting and maintaining healthy relationships with sober people, engaging in healthy, exciting activities that encourage collaboration, team building, and positive stimuli, and pursuing new habits far removed from the drug-filled habits of old. Finally, reaching out to a support partner or friend that may have recently recovered from a similar addiction is also a great way to track your progress. With their assistance, you can keep tabs of progress and avoid pitfalls that they may have made. This partner will also help you with resources and methods to cope with similar issues they may have faced. Unlike a full support group, an individual partner that you trust will be able to provide you with personalized advice that works for you specifically. This partner can also act as a confidant, and can be a great person to share progress from your journal with. There are a number of ways to record your recovery progress, but the most important point is that you do it. Being able to gauge progress reassures you that you’re getting closer to reaching your goal of complete sobriety, even if you don’t always feel like it. Once you’ve set a routine, these recordings will also act as an effective way to chronicle your own strategies for dealing with problems, in case they ever come up again!
Learning to recover after treatment is a big step on the path to sobriety, and one that shouldn’t be undertaken alone. At Oceanfront Recovery, it doesn’t have to be. We’re here for guidance, support, and motivation. Will you call us today? (877)279-1777
