SAN DIEGO, July 14, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Taking care of one's physical well-being is essential on the road to addiction recovery. For the men at Shoreline Recovery Center and Park Mental Health, self-care plays a crucial role. It's through the tailored guidance received from counselors, therapists and support groups that they become self-sustaining individuals.
"We believe that in order to heal and have therapy be the most effective, intentional self-care alongside addiction treatment is essential for recovery," said Mikayla Weathers, Program Director and LMFT at Park Mental Health. "This includes maintaining regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet and avoiding substances that could trigger a relapse."
When it comes to addiction recovery, men are up against a host of obstacles. Beginning with their emotional well-being, they often face unfair expectations, such as suppressing feelings to remain strong in difficult circumstances.
"Most men have been taught through societal conditioning that having and showing emotions equates to weakness…" Weathers said. "This is why we start by acknowledging how they've been taught to deal with emotions in their childhood and how processing emotions was modeled to them, in order to help them build insight into why they may struggle with this."
Recovery from addiction is often an arduous journey with highs, lows and setbacks, so stress management is a significant aspect of addiction recovery. Regular self-reflection for example, is a tool that can help in understanding triggers, identifying patterns and setting meaningful goals. It's important that time is taken to assess progress, celebrate achievements and adjust things as necessary.
"In early recovery, clients struggle with self-compassion, positive self-talk and self-forgiveness due to the shame and guilt they carry because of their actions during addiction and/or mental health crisis. We normalize each client's emotions and encourage them to shift old patterns of holding onto them to talking about them in peer groups and therapy sessions instead," Weathers said. Often times they haven't been taught how to put their experience into words, which is why psychoeducation is used to teach them about feelings.
Setting realistic short and long-term goals can provide a sense of purpose and direction. Shoreline Recovery Center and Park Mental Health have curriculum groups and therapy sessions to encourage open communication, self-reflection and weekly goal setting.
In addition to self-care and reflection, cultivating healthy relationships and cutting the cord on toxic ones is vital during addiction recovery, which is why staff hold clients accountable to falling back into old patterns and encourage them to make different decisions when it comes to the people they surround themselves with. These men need to have people in their lives who understand and respect their journey.
"Recovery is affected and influenced by every dimension of life, which includes personal and community relationships. Developing healthy relationships, social skills, habits and effective communication skills are an important part of maintaining long-term stability," Weathers said.
Contact Information:Steven Esparza
Chief Executive Officer
[email protected]
6193631368
Craig Burson
Business Development Director
[email protected]
Original Source: The Men at Shoreline Recovery Center and Park Mental Health Learn Self-Care Techniques to Sustain Them Along Their Addiction Recovery Journey
