Most people who experience substance use disorder (SUD) also experience intense emotions. Indeed, it is usually the most sensitive among us who fall victim to things like SUD and other forms of substance-related disorders. With these intense emotions often comes the desire to escape or self-medicate, and these behaviors often lead toward SUD or something similar. Can those of us who fit into this category ever achieve emotional health?
Absolutely! There is plenty of help available for those experiencing SUD and co-occurring emotional health issues. Not only are formal therapies and counseling available, but there are tons of tips and tricks to learn. All of these tools fit well into the sobriety-related practices needed to manage SUD, as well. Experiencing and maintaining emotional health while healing from SUD is incredibly possible.
What Is Emotional Health?
Emotional wellness looks different for everyone, but there is a baseline we all share. Being emotionally balanced means responding appropriately to the events of life. We don’t get overwhelmed by little things, and we can keep our composure when faced with challenges. Emotional well-being doesn’t mean we don’t have feelings; quite the opposite. It means we have some control over our emotions, they don’t control us. This means we are free to feel our feelings but not let them run the show.
Emotions are a part of life, from laughing and feeling happy to crying and feeling scared. All of these feelings have their appropriate time and place. Each emotion serves a purpose. Problems arise when our emotions overwhelm us, or we get into the habit of stuffing, avoiding, or self-medicating our feelings. Emotional health means facing and embracing how we feel, letting ourselves feel, but not letting our feelings control our behavior or affect our choices.
This doesn’t mean we become robots who act without feeling. It simply means we put our highest self in the driver’s seat, and don’t make permanent choices based on temporary feelings. Giving up self-medicating and running from our feelings is a brave step to take, but it’s a major key to emotional and physical sobriety. But how exactly can we handle all our feelings and keep our emotional balance?
How to Manage Emotional Health
Often, the first step in getting a hold of our emotional well-being is getting our feelings to a manageable place. This means we have to physically separate ourselves from substances through a detoxification process, like the one offered at Bright Mission Recovery. Once we are sober and clear-headed, we may find that a lot of emotional regulation happens on its own. Or, at the very least, that our emotions become more manageable once we stop trying to hide them through substance use.
Even as we undergo detoxification, Bright Mission Recovery has therapeutic and counseling staff on hand around the clock to offer us emotional and mental support. Getting free from SUD and getting emotionally healthy happen simultaneously. Just as our desire to escape emotions likely fed our SUD, the desire to get free from SUD will feed our efforts to get emotionally healthy.
As we walk the sober path of discovery, we will find many more useful tools for emotional balance. These include things like nature walks, meditations, group therapy, counseling, individualized therapy, and exercise. Tools to help balance our inner emotional lives can come in many forms. Perhaps just peacefully sitting by the waterfall on the grounds of Bright Mission Recovery will help you reach calm and get centered. It works for a lot of people!
It is important that we do the work necessary to maintain healing and sobriety. These efforts alone will go a long, long way in helping us achieve emotional health. But there is always more we can do, and it will benefit both our journey of discovery and our efforts to heal emotionally. This is where continued individualized therapy and counseling come in. We must keep up with these practices, too, if we wish to be emotionally free.
Emotional Sobriety at Bright Mission Recovery
What we’ve learned so far is exactly why Bright Mission Recovery offers the individualized, personalized therapy and counseling that it does. Because your healing and health are our number one priority. We don’t just want to help you get healthy, we want to give you the tools to stay healthy for the long haul. This is precisely why we do things the way we do.
Education about our SUD and our emotional health. Customized, personalized therapeutic and counseling programs. Meditation, yoga, healthy diet, and exercise. Group therapy, family dinners, nature walks, a waterfall; it’s all here for you! And it’s all geared toward producing lasting emotional and physical healing and sobriety. But we don’t believe in temporary solutions, either. We’re always here for you, to help you, but the work is yours to keep up.
Achieving emotional well-being takes dedication and commitment. We must be willing to pursue emotional sobriety alongside physical sobriety. Luckily for us, these two journies dovetail quite a bit. Efforts put into one will usually yield benefits on both fronts. But it’s up to us to put in the effort and take advantage of the tools and practices available. Bright Mission Recovery is here to help you do exactly that.
Substance use disorder (SUD) often wreaks havoc on our emotional well-being. So often, our emotional turmoil and our SUD feed off of each other, sticking us in a negative feedback loop. We cannot manage our emotions any more than we can manage our SUD. Emotional and physical sobriety is possible. Emotional well-being and lasting healing are happening for people just like you. Bright Mission Recovery offers a detoxification and residential treatment program alongside customized, individualized therapies and counseling. These efforts combine to create potentially long-lasting sobriety, healing, and emotional balance. If you or someone you know is struggling with SUD and emotional health issues, please call Bright Mission Recovery now at (747) 444-3284.