Do you have a specific time you wake up every day? Most people do. If you’re still new to recovery and are fortunate enough to be able to sleep in, you may want to change your habits. After all, structure is an important part of being in recovery and starting to change your life.
In the era of coronavirus, it may seem like there is a lot of uncertainty. Life can seem chaotic when you’re not sure if it is safe to make plans or socialize.
Why Structure?
When you were using drugs, you probably didn’t have a lot of structure to your day. Yes, you were going to get high or drunk. You needed to get the money for that if you didn’t already have. You might have needed to lie to somebody or ditch plans you made. Your substance came first. When you’re addicted, life can be consumed by the getting and using of your drug of choice.
Structure is fundamental to early recovery. For one thing, it helps you create healthy, responsible habits. In treatment, you may get up early, shower, eat breakfast, and head out to a 12-step meeting or therapy. Most of your time in treatment is scheduled, so you’ll always have something to look forward to, and you still have a goal in mind for the day.
Structure After Treatment
This structure is an essential part of life that you’ll want to keep doing. When you leave treatment, you may have trouble scheduling your life as tightly as you did while in the facility.
With COVID-19, you may not be able to stay as busy as you were when you were in treatment. You can’t go to classes in person or meet up for surfing with your friends. Because of this, you’ll need to try to find ways to fill up the time at home.
Creating short and long-term goals can help you stay on task when it comes to recovery. Print out a schedule and fill it out every day. Try to stick to it as much as possible, and make sure to schedule in eight hours of sleep and at least fifteen minutes of self-care. If you find that you still have large slots of time available, talk to your sponsor to find out what you are missing. They probably have some ideas to help you stick to your schedule every day.
About SD-SOAP
The San Diego Society of Addiction Professionals is a coalition of working professionals that works towards enhancing opportunities for education, interdisciplinary problem solving, and access to resources. We want to help people grow and build their best lives going forward in recovery. If you’re interested in joining or learning more about our organization, please contact us at 760.402.5682.