Stress has a tremendous impact upon your overall health and happiness. Many people use drugs or alcohol as a coping method for handling challenges in their life. The connection between having a stressful job and developing an addiction is clear. People who serve in roles that have a high degree of responsibility often find that they need to go to rehab after developing negative habits that involve misusing drugs and alcohol. In rehab, you can find firefighters, police offers and other members of the service community learning how to manage the emotional effects of their careers. Most jobs have some level of stress involved, and it gets hard to balance it along with other issues that might be going on in your life. When you are wondering how you can manage the stress of work after completing rehab, you are already asking the right questions for maintaining your sobriety.
It isn’t always possible to avoid stressful circumstances at work. You may face tight deadlines or increasingly difficult metrics that leave you worrying about the security of your job. Depending upon where you work, you might experience traumatic circumstances such as helping people through a health crisis. Even having a desk job can be stressful when you must deal with office politics or conflicts with your coworkers. Some people find that they add on the stress of starting a new job when they leave rehab. Trying to adjust to a new work schedule and responsibilities generates stress, even when you are excited about getting a different job. After dealing with stress all day at work, it is tempting to try to unwind by using drugs or alcohol. The good news is that there is hope for your future. Going to rehab is your first step towards learning how to keep work stress from impacting your wellbeing.
Learn How to Manage Stress During Your Addiction Treatment
There are many healthy ways to manage stress, but it sometimes takes some trial and error to find what works best for you. Most people need to use several different stress management strategies to help them relax after a difficult time at work. During rehab, you’ll work through a program that is designed to give you personalized support. Therapy at rehab takes several different forms. These are all created to help you discover the best ways to handle cravings that are triggered by stress.
•Individual counseling-find out which issues cause you the most stress
•Group counseling-learn how other people manage work-related tension
•Recreational therapy-identify your preferred activities for relaxation.
A large part of what you do at rehab is meant to help you stay sober once you begin rebuilding your life. Learning things such as how to practice mindfulness can help you to relax instantly without using drugs. Many of the techniques you learn for handling stress can even be done at work. Deep breathing exercises and developing good communication skills help you address stressful moments right when they happen.
Once you leave rehab, you enter a world where you have to learn how to deal with whatever comes your way. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean that you are alone. Your after care plan should include outpatient therapeutic services that help you successfully make the transition back to work. Addiction recovery often requires continuing with your treatment through group therapy sessions that you can attend after work or on your days off. Talking to other people who are also making the transition back to their normal lives gives you ideas for handling the challenges that come up. You’ll also be able to use the skills that you learned during your initial treatment to work through difficult times in your career.
Going to the gym after a bad work day helps you to produce natural endorphins that help you feel better. Additionally, sticking to your routine of going to bed at the right time can help you have enough energy to get through an exhausting work shift. You can also lean on the people in your support network that you create during your stay at a rehab. Your family, new sober friends and counselors can all help you work through issues to find safe and healthy solutions.
Dealing with stress in life is unavoidable, but you do have the ability to control how you choose to handle it. Are you ready to figure out a new and better way to live your life? Give us a call at 833-610-1174. We can set you up with a plan that helps you navigate challenges at work so that you manage your addiction and enjoy a successful career.