You’ve finally decided to change, but something seems to be holding you back. Don’t let anything stop you from living a good, clean life. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can break away from your addiction.
STEP 1. Know Your Purpose for Doing it
The first step to breaking an addiction is to acknowledge why you’re doing it in the first place. Perhaps you use alcohol to numb the pain you feel. Maybe your addiction to drugs is more about overcoming your loneliness than it is to “get high.” Admitting that you have an addiction is hard enough, but not recognizing the real reason behind it only makes it harder. As Dr. Phil, a popular mental health professional states, you cannot change what you don’t acknowledge.
STEP 2. Rationalize, Don’t Deny
You know that your addiction does nothing good for you, yet you continue doing it. Perhaps you’re even trying to justify or trivialize it. You even refuse to go for a Malibu addiction treatment. But when you deny the severity of your situation, you hinder yourself from moving forward and overcoming your addiction.
STEP 3. Look for Other Ways to Cope
People have different ways of coping with life’s difficulties. Perhaps it is through drinking or smoking because it calms you, lifts your mood, relieves your anxiety, etc. Now imagine that it’s taken away from you and nothing is there to replace it. What happens then? You just go back to what you’re doing before. To avoid falling into that trap, look for alternative ways and techniques to cope with stressful situations.
STEP 4. Know Your Weakest Points
According to PsychCentral, one way to break a person’s addiction is to predict what his weak spots are. There are particular moments or circumstances when you are most vulnerable to giving in to your habit. Identify what those times are and try to do something that conflicts your addiction.
STEP 5. Change Your Lifestyle
It takes more than willpower to overcome a bad habit. Create changes in your lifestyle if you want to break an addiction. It may involve avoiding places you usually go to, activities you engage in or sometimes even people you usually hang out with. Simply put, stop doing things that allow you to easily access your addiction. Remember, if you don’t wish to slip, just avoid slippery places.
STEP 6. Reward Yourself
Overcoming addiction is tough, but nobody said it can’t be done. When you find yourself making progress, no matter how small it may be, motivate yourself to keep going. Reward yourself for every step you have accomplished because you deserve it.
Follow these steps and take the road towards a healthier, better you.
Breaking addiction is something you cannot undo overnight. It is a step-by-step process that requires a wholehearted commitment. Seasons in Malibu specializes in a wide range of addiction treatment programs, to know more visit their website.
