18 Essential Coping Skills for Addiction

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One of the biggest mistakes that a person can make in addiction recovery is failing to have positive coping skills for addiction. Life’s greatest stresses are not going to go away because you are in recovery. Life’s challenges might be even harder to manage without the blanket of drugs or alcohol to numb your feelings.

But what are the most effective ways to cope in early recovery?

Fortunately, developing that arsenal of healthy coping skills for overcoming substance abuse is easier than you think. At Catalina Behavioral Health, we can help you develop these skills through individual and group therapy. When you leave, you’ll have an arsenal of tools at your disposal to ensure that life’s inconveniences don’t disrupt the progress you’ve made.

Let’s look at our 18 coping skills for addiction recovery that can help – and remember to reach out to Catalina at any time for programs of support!

Develop Healthy Coping Skills for Addiction Recovery

Coping strategies come in many shapes and sizes. While there are different ways to classify coping skills, some of the categories that we’ll focus on include emotion-focused coping, problem-focused coping, religious coping, social support, and meaning-making.

With more coping mechanisms in your arsenal, there’s a greater chance of overcoming drug and alcohol use and maintaining long-term sobriety.

1) Emotion-Focused Coping

Emotion-focused coping can result in positive or negative outcomes depending on the approach to negative feelings. Some people might isolate, withdraw, or turn to substances or food to emotionally cope. Better emotional coping skills are journaling or writing. They allow for emotional expression rather than bottling emotions up.

2) Problem-Focused Coping

With this coping skill, you’ll focus on mental capacity and the behaviors that follow in finding a solution to a problem. This might involve gathering more information, asking questions, or delaying an emotional reaction.

3) Religious or Spiritual Coping Skills

Religious coping is relatively new in terms of treating addiction. It involves elements of social support, as well as emotion and problem-focused coping. Religious coping typically has a positive outcome, though this might change if an individual believes they are being punished or abandoned by a higher power.

4) Social Support

During social support, individuals seek aid from their social group. This could be physical or emotional support and it might be provided by a friend, acquaintance, or someone met through group therapy.

The outcome of social support depends heavily on the individual that you choose to confide in. There are generally positive outcomes regarding support, but this can backfire if your chosen confidant reacts negatively.

5) Meaning-Making and Framing Your Narrative

Meaning-making works well for some individuals, particularly those who are focused on changing the patterns of their lives. However, it does not work well for individuals who just ask “Why me” and allow themselves to feel victimized by life.

Meaning-making coping skills encourage you to look at stressors and situations and find the meaning or positives in them. Once you find meaning, you’ll be able to decide what parts of these patterns no longer serve you.

More Strategies to Use in Recovery from Addiction

Now that we’ve talked a little about the types of coping strategies that might benefit individuals in addiction recovery, let’s talk about the details of these different empowering coping skills.

6) Chunking

Chunking is a problem-solving coping skill where you break up information available to you. As you dissect the available information, you’ll be able to understand it better. Chunking also provides mental clarity when you’re dealing with complex emotions.

7) Delaying an Emotional Reaction

A major part of addiction treatment is learning to control compulsions. Emotional reactions are just another type of compulsion that must be controlled.

Delaying an emotional reaction does not mean avoiding the problem altogether. By delaying a reaction, you have more time to gather information and interpret situations appropriately. This can lead you to focus on a solution instead of confronting someone.

8) Understanding Triggers

Understanding situations that trigger you to drink or use drugs is important as you learn to overcome addiction challenges. Internal triggers are thoughts and feelings that might trigger a relapse. By contrast, external triggers refer to those stressors going on around you, such as stress from family members, problems at work, or being around the wrong crowd of people.

There are some cases where relapse triggers might be clear. However, there may also be certain interactions or social situations that trigger you unexpectedly. When this happens, it’s important to already have healthy coping skills in place.

9) Journal for Emotional Clarity

Emotions are not always productive. When you feel strongly about something or have difficult emotions, it can cloud your judgment and make it hard to think clearly. This is especially true for intense feelings. Journaling can relieve anxiety, give you clarity, or be a great coping mechanism for anger management.

Writing or journaling is an excellent way to unpack your emotions and start understanding them. There’s no wrong or right way to journal. Plus, it gives you the chance to handle those strong, negative emotions so that you can be more solution-oriented.

10) Managing Strong Emotions and Impulses

It is not enough to just avoid triggers. Life is unpredictable and there will be times when you are faced with unexpected triggers. In these moments, it’s important to already have the coping skills in place to overcome impulses, stay sober, and prevent relapse.

One benefit of managing these strong impulses during the recovery process is that you build resilience in these moments. As you avoid relapse again and again, it builds your confidence in yourself and your ability to stay sober.

11) Get Involved in Recreational Activities

Finding healthy and positive activities for yourself is going to provide the support necessary for substance abuse recovery. Individuals who use drugs or alcohol often spend so much time using that they do not participate in a lot of other activities.

Recreational activities include things like playing outdoor sports, hiking, kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, yoga, and countless other activities. Physical activity boosts endorphins, which are important for managing stress, depression, and mental fog that are common during recovery.

These new habits are a great replacement for unhealthy habits during substance abuse. Activities like these can also be useful as healthy ways to distract yourself when you are experiencing cravings during the recovery process.

12) Grow Your Sober Support Network

Having a sober network that you can turn to when times get hard can be instrumental in preventing you from falling back into old habits. Additionally, this can be important for individuals who might not be able to return to their old social circles because of substance abuse.

There are many support groups for alcohol and drug abuse including Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as non-12-step options like SMART Recovery. We also offer support groups at Catalina from group therapy to intensive outpatient programs. The social support offered by programs like these is important for feeling a sense of connection on your recovery journey.

13) Support Your Mental Health

Mental health is an essential component of addiction recovery. Many individuals completing treatment programs continue to have therapy sessions after detox and may attend group therapy sessions as well.

Therapy can help you maintain relationships, improve communication skills, develop healthy coping skills, and curb negative behavior. Additionally, it’s critical for treating any underlying mental health issues or mental illness that might contribute to substance use.

At addiction treatment centers like Catalina, we can connect you with providers that specialize in substance use disorder and behavioral therapies. We also ensure there is an aftercare and follow-up plan for treatment in place before you leave our facility.

Therapeutic practices like behavioral therapy are especially beneficial for recovery success because they invite you to look at negative thoughts and the patterns of negative behaviors that result. From there, you can identify addiction triggers and develop effective coping skills to handle these stressful situations.

14) Develop Lifestyle Habits that Support Addiction Recovery

Mental health is an important component of substance abuse recovery. However, it’s also important that you do not ignore your physical health.

Healthy habits include getting regular exercise, sleeping enough, and eating well to avoid cravings. Nutritional support and sleep are especially important following long-term substance use because of the toll that it takes on your body.

15) Make Time for Relaxation

Relaxing can look different depending on what activities you enjoy. Anything that calms you will work, including enjoying nature, laughing, listening to your favorite music, taking a bath, reading a book, coloring, or having a cup of green or herbal tea.

Try to prioritize time for relaxation every day. Supportive measures like these provide necessary stress relief.

16) Practice Gratitude

It is all too easy to get caught up in negative thoughts about your life, especially early in recovery when you might still be facing consequences from past drug use. When you practice gratitude, you take the time to acknowledge the things that you are grateful for. It’s not uncommon for individuals in recovery from drugs and alcohol to keep a gratitude journal so they can reflect on these things during hard times.

Gratitude is important because it reduces stress, benefits the healing process, and helps you maintain a positive attitude while staying sober. Having a positive attitude can do a lot to overcome addiction challenges and maintain long-term sobriety.

17) Mindfulness Meditations

Strategies like mindfulness meditation draw your focus to the present moment. It can be a useful tool for managing cravings for drugs and alcohol and may also help you manage emotions.

Mindfulness works best when it is done as a daily practice. Start with five minutes and try to clear your mind and focus on the present moment. It’s okay to notice what you hear around you, like the traffic going by outside or a breeze blowing by your face. However, you want to notice these things and then release them, without thinking about them too much.

Mindfulness is something that can be difficult at first, but that’s why it’s important to practice. If you practice when you aren’t already in crisis, it’s more likely to be effective when you need it.

Mindfulness is also a useful strategy for preventing relapse. Try eating sour or spicy food as a distraction when you are experiencing drug cravings or difficult emotions that might trigger substance abuse.

18) Help Others and Get Out of Your Own Head

It can feel good to do something for someone other than yourself. You can volunteer at the animal shelter or soup kitchen, offer to cook a meal for a sick friend or find another way to offer assistance.

Not only does it feel good to help, but helping others also fosters healthy social connections and makes you feel like you belong. This is important for people who may have isolated themselves before getting sober.

What Are Unhealthy Coping Skills?

While it might seem like anything is better than turning to your substance of choice, many unhealthy coping skills do more harm than good. Often, these negative coping skills involve avoiding issues rather than tackling them head-on.

This is something individuals in addiction treatment may struggle with, especially if they once used drugs or alcohol as a means of numbing themselves from the outside world. Some unhealthy coping skills might involve sleeping too much, over or undereating, or compulsive habits like shopping or gambling. Using substances other than the one you were addicted to is also a poor coping skill.

Get Support for Lasting Recovery at Catalina Now

Our team at Catalina is waiting for your call so we can help you start your recovery journey. Lasting recovery is more than just getting through the detox process. It’s also important to develop healthy coping mechanisms like the ones above so that no matter what your everyday life throws at you, you’re ready to handle it.

Call us and find out how we can help today!