“Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical,” famed baseball player and manager Yogi Berra once supposedly said. While Berra’s math might be suspect, we see his point. Sports are both physical and mental.
Substance use disorder is also both mental and physical. So is recovery. To treat substance use disorder, we have to address the physical and psychological aspects of drug abuse and alcohol addiction. These treatments are often ongoing processes that continue long after people leave rehab centers.
One of these processes includes having the right mindset for an ongoing recovery. While this can sound like a daunting task, there are things that people can do to produce positive thoughts and recovery results. People might want to consider
- Thinking about what they’re doing and the consequences of these actions. Are they doing things to aid in their sobriety or things that can hurt their long-term sobriety?
- Evaluating any criticism they receive. Is it constructive criticism? While a lot of criticism can be hard to hear, maybe this criticism can help people improve in certain areas.
- Challenging themselves. Challenges might allow people the chance to grow. Even if people fail, they can use the knowledge that they had the confidence to face new challenges and can tackle other challenges in the future.
- Keep going forward. Failure is a part of life, but failures can be good learning experiences. They can help people improve and become stronger.
- Continuing to learn. If people learn more about themselves and other things, they can have a better understanding of their substance use disorder problems and other matters.
Doing these things can help people view things a certain way. These actions show how people can approach recovery not just by doing certain things, but thinking certain things as well.
