When you have done the hard work of putting drugs or alcohol behind you, it is only natural that you will feel grateful for the improvement in your quality of life. After all, a substance use disorder chips away at every aspect of your life. First and foremost, a substance use disorder damages your physical health and mental health—often in truly devastating ways.
Those health impacts have knock-along effects. It becomes difficult to work, for example, putting your livelihood at risk. Your relationships suffer as you become unreliable or behave in problematic ways. And in some cases, you put yourself or others in significant danger. Indeed, a substance use disorder can lead to tragedy for you or innocent bystanders.
All of those issues start to improve once you have gotten the treatment you need to overcome a substance use disorder and restart your life.
So, again, a sense of gratitude is a logical reaction to getting drugs or alcohol out of your system and your recovery underway. Over time, however, that feeling of gratitude can start to fade as the stresses of day-to-day life return and the rigors of recovery start to set in. That is certainly understandable.
But we would argue that cultivating an ongoing spirit of gratitude is a wonderful way to support your ongoing recovery. We have suggestions for how you might do just that.
Service Is a Reflection of Gratitude
When you were under the ongoing influence of drugs or alcohol, you probably were not performing very many acts of service. After all, a substance use disorder makes it difficult to do anything productive at all—let alone acts of kindness toward others.
That can change once your recovery is underway. As you get your feet under you in recovery, you can seek out opportunities to help others. There are any number of ways that might play out. For example, you could:
- Volunteer for—or make donations to—a cause or organization that is important to you.
- Work to be a good friend and source of support for those in your recovery community.
- Make amends to those you may have hurt while in the grip of your substance use disorder.
- Help a neighbor with a project or with chores that may be difficult for them for one reason or another.
Any time you are intentional about an act of service, you are doing good in the world—and you are supporting your ongoing recovery.
A Journal Is a Great Way to Keep Gratitude Top of Mind
There are, of course, many different kinds of journals—and all of them can be useful tools for a person in recovery. For our purposes here, however, we will focus on the gratitude journal, which is a wonderful way to help you remember all the good things in your life. Many of those good things are certainly made possible by your commitment to ongoing sober living.
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to keeping a gratitude journal, but the most common approach involves writing down three things you are grateful for each day. You could do this first thing in the morning to start your day with a reminder of the good things in your life. You could do it midday as a way to give yourself a little boost of good feeling before digging into your afternoon tasks. Or you could do it in the evening as a way to reflect on the day that has just passed and give yourself some positivity you can carry with you as you drift off to sleep.
The key is not so much when you write in your journal, but rather that you do so consistently. Building this particular habit helps you remember all the reasons you have to keep your recovery on track. It is a simple but powerful practice with ongoing benefits as your recovery rolls on.
Be Grateful Your Way
We have offered some suggestions for maintaining gratitude during your recovery journey. They are not, however, intended as prescriptions. You can build a spirit of gratitude in whatever way makes the most sense for you and your situation. The key idea is having a grateful approach to life—no matter what that looks like for you.
We Would Be Grateful for a Chance to Help You
Everyone at The Aviary Recovery Center, located near St. Louis, Missouri, is grateful for the opportunity to help people put drugs and alcohol behind them and start their recovery journey with confidence. Our residential, outpatient, and virtual treatment programs are all built around evidence-based practices that can help you overcome a substance use disorder.
Our inpatient approach includes medically supervised detoxification and a rehabilitation program that includes group and individual therapy sessions, which can also include treatment for a co-occurring mental health disorder. Those mental health disorders—like depression, anxiety, or an issue grounded in traumatic experiences—can be thoroughly entangled with a substance use disorder, making it essential to treat them together.
We follow up residential treatment with a commitment to a continuum of care, which means we offer ongoing support and resources to ensure you can start your recovery journey with confidence. And should you experience a relapse, we are prepared to help you restart your recovery.
