Whether you’re struggling with an addiction to alcohol or drugs, you should realize that substances are only a symptom. When it comes to the disease of addiction, one must get down to the causes and conditions of using. Many people with an addiction start drinking or using as a solution to their emotional problems. Eventually, the substances become the problem, so you need some coping skills in order to truly recover from addiction.
Lack of Coping Skills Leads to Relapse
One of the major problems with the education system is that children do not learn coping skills at a young age. Health classes focus on physical health aspects like diet, exercise, and disease, but rarely emotional health. Without knowing how to deal with one’s emotions and the life situations attached to them, young people are left to find their own solutions. Often times, this comes in the form of self-medication with different types of drugs or alcohol.
Addiction and substance abuse primarily develops between the ages of 14 and 24 years old but can happen at any time. An adult who never learns how to cope with negative emotions can have problems, too. For example, a traumatic experience can happen later in someone’s life that results in negative emotions. Looking for a way to relax or escape negative emotions with substances can develop a dependency.
Learning Coping Skills in Treatment
The addiction help you receive in treatment is about learning coping skills to deal with life on life’s terms. This is why treatment is so important. You need to learn how to retrain your mind and replace behaviors. This type of cognitive change doesn’t happen immediately, and it can take some time to work through. Addiction treatment even at detox is to help you create a foundation so you have new tools to use when life creeps up on you.
The other issue that flies under the radar is that of mental illness. Many with addiction issues don’t even realize they have a mental illness as well as an addiction. Different forms of mental illness can make a person’s life extremely unmanageable. Some people never have a diagnosis for their mental illness, so they self-medicate with substances. Others may develop an addiction to medications that treat mental illness, and this can be just as bad.
The most common forms of mental illness include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- ADHD
- PTSD
Creating a Foundation at Serenity House Detox & Recovery
Here at Serenity House Detox & Recovery, we want to provide you with a strong foundation so you can learn to cope with life issues. We provide therapies and programs to that end, including:
New skills and thought patterns develop while you go through detox as you learn how to cope with cravings. Through different forms of addiction treatment, you’ll also learn how to deal with anger, stress, sadness, and loneliness. To speak to an addiction specialist and learn more about coping skills, call Serenity House Detox & Recovery at 866-294-5306.
