It is amazing how many warning signs of stress look exactly like warning signs in the process of relapse! In fact, we know that many of these are identical – and that stress is a huge trigger in relapse. Well, it’s not actually the stress, is it? It’s what we do with that stress.
Group was focused on improving our knowledge and self-awareness in regard to identifying and managing stress in our lives.
What is stress? Is it always bad? What triggers stress? What are the negative health effects of being in a constant stress-state? Last night, we worked on these answers to these questions and more. We identified not only our own specific triggers – and what our number #1 current stressor is – we walked through a litany of coping skills and strategies effective in mitigating stress.
And not surprisingly to anyone who has been reading these blogs, but we followed up our education group with one of everyone’s favorite stress-reduction tools – EXERCISE. Remember, stress is a large part of everyone’s life in the 21st century. Just because you’re in recovery, doesn’t mean you have a monopoly on stress. If you’re a “normie” (i.e., not in recovery / no addiction condition), get your exercise on to reduce stress!