If you’ve been diagnosed with substance use disorder (SUD), treatment is the start of recovery rather than the end of your journey. After treatment ends, you’ll need to find ways to remain motivated and focused on maintaining sobriety. Tracking your progress and celebrating milestones can provide this motivation. What’s more, a variety of healing modalities can equip you with the skills and perspectives you’ll need to stay on track. According to The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, “Cognitive therapy is one of the main tools for changing people’s negative thinking and developing healthy coping skills.” Cognitive therapy can help you focus on positive ways you can celebrate milestones in recovery. The Guest House encourages alumni to share their progress in recovery as a form of self-empowerment. By finding ways to acknowledge your progress, you can feel more inspired to continue your healing.
Why Should You Acknowledge Your Progress in Recovery?
There are many ways to acknowledge your recovery progress. One way is to determine whether you have achieved the goals you set during treatment and continuing care.
Tracking your goals during ongoing recovery does the following:
- Encourages continued progress and increases motivation
- Reinforces self-esteem and builds self-worth
- Fosters a sense of pride and accomplishment
- Reinforces positive habits and behaviors
- Reveals what patterns of behavior have the most positive effect on your recovery
- Promotes discipline, accountability, and consistency
- Encourages positive self-talk and promotes a healthier mindset
- Strengthens your resilience and self-efficacy
Looking back and seeing all the progress you have made in recovery will give you a greater sense of control over the future. You may feel more confident in your ability to overcome challenges. The Guest House encourages alumni to celebrate successes with friends, family, and peers. If you ever feel overwhelmed, you can look back on the goals you have achieved and acknowledge the strength and skills it took to get that far. You may not realize how much your life has changed for the better unless you take the time to look back at your progress.
The Power of Celebrating Milestones
Many people struggle to find a direction for their lives after achieving sobriety. However, you can use the various milestones to chart a new path forward. Celebrating milestones can empower you to make better choices about your spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Focusing on your successes and how they have improved your life can increase positive self-talk and give you a sense of purpose. You can also set goals for future milestones you’d like to reach.
Some of the mental health benefits of celebrating milestones during ongoing sobriety include:
- Increased emotional stability
- Improved quality of sleep
- Reduced risk of developing co-occurring conditions
If you focus on the positive aspects of your recovery, you are more likely to feel in control of your life and less likely to experience significant mental health setbacks. The Guest House encourages alumni to share their progress with the clinical team, their friends, and their peers.
How Can You Acknowledge Your Progress?
Everyone has unique ways of celebrating success. You can acknowledge the progress you have made while recovering from substance abuse by doing the following:
- Celebrating each month you have remained sober
- Writing down and reflecting on your achievements in recovery
- Sharing your journey with peers, friends, and family
- Practicing self-compassion and reminding yourself of each goal you’ve reached
- Finding healthy ways to reward yourself for meeting recovery goals
- Recognizing improvements in relationships
- Focusing on personal growth and acknowledging positive changes
Tracking the ways your life has improved since you began treatment can give you another reason to avoid falling back into old patterns of behavior during moments of high stress. You can see objectively how your life has gotten better by making changes to how you think about yourself and your situation.
Sharing Your Successes With Peers and Loves Ones
You may benefit from sharing your experiences with loved ones. However, not everyone feels comfortable discussing details of recovery from substance abuse. You may feel uncertain about how to share your success with loved ones and peers.
Stigmas surrounding substance abuse and recovery may make it awkward or leave you unsure of how to communicate your milestones with the people you care about most. Self-help groups and individual therapy can provide you with a safe space to practice how you want to share your news.
How Does The Guest House Acknowledge Your Progress as an Alumnus?
Alumni can discuss their progress during check-ins with the care team. Clinicians communicate regularly with alumni during the first few months to ensure they have the resources to maintain sobriety and positive mental health. According to Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, “Recovery management checkups (RMC) is a continuing care intervention that provides individuals who have entered treatment for SUD with long-term monitoring of their substance use and active attempts to reengage them in treatment when needed.” The check-ins allow alumni to express their feelings about meeting certain milestones and how it has positively impacted their lives. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is another resource offered to alumni to help them focus on the positive aspects of their lives, including their milestones.
Being a Role Model for Others in Treatment
Additionally, alumni act as positive role models for current clients at The Guest House by participating in community events and group meetings. Being a role model to individuals in treatment for SUD can provide you with life-changing experiences by showing the impact your progress has on the lives of others in recovery.
Sharing your story provides hope and inspiration to others. Becoming a source of inspiration for others can be one way of celebrating your successes. What’s more, witnessing your peers’ growth provides you with valuable lessons in resilience and new perspectives that may enhance your ongoing sobriety.
Recovering from substance abuse takes determination, effort, and time. Celebrating milestones in recovery helps you stay motivated to make positive choices. Looking back at the goals you have achieved makes it easier to maintain sobriety during moments of stress. Additionally, you can build a healthier future upon the successes of the past and increase your self-confidence by celebrating with loved ones. At The Guest House, we’ve created a thriving, sober community where our alumni come together and share their successes. Our current clients learn from our alumni’s experiences and gain confidence in their ability to overcome SUD. To learn more about our programs and services, contact our office today at (855) 483-7800.