Many steps exist in building substance use disorder (SUD) recovery success. You need the right team of professionals to help you. You need a healthy diet and support for mental health challenges. Yet, another very important way to support your long-term recovery is to focus on structure.
Several benefits come from building a routine to help you navigate recovery, such as:
- Establishing a new normal allows you to work through the hardships of those first few weeks and months. A new routine allows you to replace your frustration and fear with more stability, providing a sense of security.
- Routines help you maintain self-control. There is far more than willpower that goes into recovering from dependence and addiction. Temptation could be a factor for you for some time. With a routine, you have more self-discipline, and resisting the urge to turn back to that substance is a bit easier.
- It boosts your self-esteem. Sticking with a routine helps you feel more accomplished and enables you to pat yourself on the back – with reason! The confidence boost of completing your routine feels good.
There is no simple first step to changing a bad habit or learning how to rebuild after addiction treatment. However, when you work with our treatment center, you’ll gain the tools you need to build an effective routine that can help foster long-term success.
How to Build Your First Year in Recovery Routine
That first year in recovery is a bit different for each person, but it is always one that is filled with the unknown. As soon as you begin to receive care at Iron Bridge, you’ll work on building a routine that aims to structure your days and support your recovery. How do you build a routine?
What goes into your schedule? To build a routine, there are several components of your care you need to focus on as a foundation:
- Sleep: Aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep each day. However, it’s also important to create a sleep schedule. That helps regulate your internal clock, enabling you to sleep better and restore your mental and physical health each day.
- Exercise: Aim to engage in some type of exercise each day, even if it is only for 10 to 15 minutes. Exercise burns off the stress and enables you to experience feel-good hormones. You are taking care of yourself.
- Hygiene: You need to build time into your day for basic hygiene early on. That includes showering, brushing your teeth, and following an overall step-by-step routine in the morning and evening. Even small routines like this build the stability you need in treatment.
- Meals: Though it can be hard to change your diet, the food you eat plays an important role in your body’s ability to heal. Healthy meals restore your body’s health, fuel your immune system, and support your overall brain function.
Build In More Routine
With these core components in place, it is time to build your schedule to include the activities you need to participate in. These could change over time, especially as you move from residential treatment to outpatient care and beyond. However, some additional core elements you need to build into your day include:
- Support: Going to meetings daily is often necessary initially. Soon, you will go to fewer. Over time, you will be able to view meetings as a way to connect and support others, not just yourself.
- Work: Most people will need to work. Try to keep the same schedule each week. You also want to consider your education and stick to a routine schedule.
- Social interaction: Build it into your structured day! You need time to spend with other people who you know and trust to help you. That may mean you need to step away from those who may not be a good component of your life right now. If you don’t have a lot of others to spend time with, work to build those new relationships in positive ways.
In addition to these steps, your routines may also need to include spiritual guidance, hobbies, and activities you find enjoyable. Give yourself downtime each day, especially as you transition from one activity to the next.
Let Our Team Help You Get Started
Iron Bridge Recovery Center offers a foundation of support, compassion, and exceptional strategies that work. Contact us now for a consultation and let our team help you start on the path to recovery, one routine and a structure-filled day at a time.
