Substance abuse allows us to escape our emotions. If the real issues were alcohol or narcotics, merely abstaining from such substances would fix the problem. The problem with addiction or substance abuse is that when these drugs and alcohol are withdrawn, the true problems that a person has been hiding come to light. Having withdrawals during rehab is a difficult process as they are filled with guilt, shame and hopelessness after the dark days of succumbing to self-deprecation in the wrong way. It may be one of the scariest aspects of the recovery process for those that need withdrawal management.
Many people are concerned about those in rehabilitation, curiosity that piques their interest on how the residents endure the treatment there. In addition to medical withdrawal (separation from the drugs of abuse), recovery is largely about processing the feelings that arise. The recovery centre has expertise treating alcohol and drug addiction and employs proven successful addiction treatment approaches. Their services teach a new way of living as well as how to avoid relapse. These treatment facilities use rehabilitation methods such as exercise therapy to promote healthier behaviours rather than maladaptive ones. Drug or alcohol abuse therapy should still provide coping skills that can be used to cope with stressors or cravings. Certain exercises can be used in behavioural interventions, family therapy, and group therapy to enhance the healing process and facilitate self-expression.
As a compassionate volunteer in the hearts of California, you can help the rehab residents to go through their days easier with some activities to keep their mind calm and serene as well as making them comfortable. Some popular practises have a significant therapeutic benefit, making them an excellent resource to use when in addiction recovery. You can use activities to communicate with yourself, your thoughts, and those around you. Putting the skills gained in our recovery options to use will mean the difference between short-term and long-term sobriety.
Here are the list of activities you can do together at rehab with the residents:
Listening To Music Together
Music is proven to get a shift of the atmosphere, be it joy, tranquility and other emotions to heighten. Music has the ability to improve or boost your mood, making it an excellent resource for those in recovery. Feel-good music is motivating and has been scientifically shown to offer emotional support to those undergoing addiction treatment.
Get A Book To Read
Reading a book can make you go deeper into the story and divert your attention from thinking about the outside world. It is a really calming practise which helps those in recovery to get lost in a different universe, remember different points of view, imagine something different, and so on. Reading is an excellent technique for distracting yourself, practising distress tolerance, and encouraging you to concentrate on something else for the time being.
Take A Stroll
People would joke about something like ‘touch a grass’ or ‘look at the sky’, mostly for those who never go out. Little do they know these can actually help those in rehabs, even for a little. A walk outside is an underutilised method of clearing the mind and practising mindfulness. Try going for a stroll and paying attention to your surroundings. What do you notice? Why tree’s leaves of which colour? Are you going through some fields of grass or flowers? Is there any cloud cover in the sky?
Write A Letter For A Loved One
Being in rehab for so long, surely the inhabitants longed for their family’s presence. Snail mail is often the most meaningful way to receive a letter. Sitting down to write a letter is a therapeutic process because it helps the person to concentrate their thoughts in a way that results in something useful for those they care for. Whether it is up to them to plan on sending the letter or not, the act of writing down your true thoughts and feelings to another person is often therapeutic.
Play A Puzzle Game
Get the brain working! Working on a puzzle will enhance cognitive performance while still encouraging those in rehabilitation to work at their own pace. Having a specific target in mind allows those in rehabilitation to focus on a positive mission, with small incentives along the way to motivate them to keep working.
Use A Coloring Book
Coloring? Does that seem too childish? There is nothing childish about anything like coloring as it can explore one’s creativity as well as providing a mental remedy. Coloring books are a calming experience that can help to stimulate the mind by allowing it to concentrate on something basic. Coloring with a colouring book will help alcoholics and addicts cope with a surge of feelings in treatment by giving the mind something really easy to concentrate on.
Spring Cleaning
It’s more fun to cooperate with the others to clean the place together. Your experience in cleaning the buildings as a janitor under cleaning service insurance and bonding cost can offer extra knowledge for the residents to apply the same concept and ways of cleaning and repairing the interior and internal systems respectively.
