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Grief affects everyone in life and can be hard to deal with. If you are suffering from an addiction to alcohol or drugs, coping with loss can become a significant barrier to maintaining your sobriety.
It’s essential to know how grief and addiction are linked and how they affect one another. If you are worried about dealing with these issues, then you must learn more about coping with grief while in recovery and what support is available.
The Connection Between Grief and Addiction
Grief is the name for a wide mix of emotions that surface when you are dealing with the loss of a person or something significant in your life. To better understand overcoming grief during sobriety, you need to know the stages of grief and what the emotions are.
The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
People can become addicted during grief because substances can be used to deal with these emotions. If you are suffering from bad mental health because of loss, substances can be a way to manage and get through the day.
Drugs and alcohol or another addiction can become a replacement for what you have lost, using it to fill the emptiness that you are left with. Grief can act as a trigger for addiction, leading you to unhealthy coping mechanisms and causing you to isolate from others.
When dealing with grief and addiction, it’s essential to deal with them both at the same time. If the deeper issues surrounding your grief are not dealt with, the danger of relapsing because of it will always be there.
How Grief Can Impact the Recovery Process
Grief can cause emotional setbacks that interrupt your recovery. Before the act of a relapse occurs, an emotional one takes place. Grief can lead you to the feelings that help justify your addiction – denial, playing down the addiction – that ultimately precedes a relapse.
Grief will affect relapse as it impacts systems in your body. Feeling grief releases cortisol, the stress hormone that impacts your body in many ways. This stress can disrupt sleeping patterns, affect your immune system and leave you emotionally fragile.
If left unresolved, grief will lead you back to destructive behaviours and can turn into more harmful mental health issues such as chronic depression.
After rehabilitation, it is so important to stay connected to your support network so the impacts of grief can be lessened.
Healthy Ways to Cope With Grief in Recovery
Dealing with grief in recovery is all about replacing your unhealthy coping mechanisms (addiction) with more productive things. There are changes you can make in your life that will reduce the risk of relapse and also help you lead a healthier and more fulfilling life.
Develop Healthy Coping Mechanisms
Grief brings with it a load of emotions. It can all get overwhelming, so developing new habits to replace the time you spent using substances and filling your day is helpful. Journaling can help you process your emotions, whilst practising mindfulness can help you claim some calm in the chaos. Eating well and regular physical activity will also help you feel energised, provide routine and make you physically and mentally healthier.
Give Grief the Room
Grief is challenging and distressing, but it is not bad. Feeling the mix of emotions that grief brings up is a part of life. You need to give yourself permission to experience these feelings and give yourself time to get through them and accept the losses in your life.
Avoid Harmful Behaviours
Things that can hurt your sobriety, such as isolation and suppressing emotions, are things you must avoid. Stay connected to people and ask for help if you need it. Know your triggers and avoid them, and make sure to surround yourself with people who encourage your recovery.
The Role of Therapy and Counselling in Grief and Recovery
Though being motivated and making lifestyle changes is key to getting over grief and your addiction, the importance of professional help cannot be overstated. Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and grief counselling provide you with the tools to deal with the issues you are facing in a calm and supportive environment.
In CBT, you will better understand how your emotions and negative thought patterns lead to destructive actions and work on changing this process to something more positive. Grief counselling can help you better understand your loss, express your emotions more healthily and provide a place where you can heal and grow as a person.
Outside of more professional sessions, numerous grief support groups that can help. 12-step programs such as Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous are great resources that allow you to connect to others and hone better coping techniques.
Maintaining Sobriety & Coping With Loss
You may be well along your recovery journey and not feel in danger of relapsing when loss strikes you. You still need to be vigilant and aware that addiction could impact your life. Maintaining your sobriety has to be the most important thing in your life; otherwise, you can’t help others around you and be the best version of yourself.
Stay Focused
Even when experiencing emotional pain, you need to keep your eye on the prize. What are your sobriety goals? Sticking to them and staying committed will help you stay away from alcohol and drug addiction, giving you a purpose and achievable goals.
Manage Triggers
Managing triggers during emotional times can be difficult. There are some things you can do to help yourself control cravings and maintain your sobriety.
- Know your triggers
- Stay busy
- Urge surf
- Educate yourself
- Set achievable goals
- Celebrate successes
Have a Relapse Prevention Plan
Having a tailored relapse prevention plan will be of great help to you. If grief has brought you to addiction, then make sure there is an emphasis on dealing with it in your plan, so you have a sense of control and things to work towards.
Finding Support and Resources During Grief in Recovery
Coping with grief in recovery is complex, and it is something you should not do alone. Once you leave rehab, you’ll likely have access to aftercare that can provide you with resources to cope in the wider world. You’ll gain access to a group support meeting that will encourage you to stay social and could be the beginning of a support network.
It’s also essential to build a supportive community around you, made up of family, friends and sponsors. Your support network can help you feel less isolated, hold you accountable when you need it, help you be more social, and provide everyday practical support.
There are also online and in-person resources to help you with grief management during addiction. Local places such as your library and GP may have information on nearby grief support resources.
Online there are many organisations out there, including:
Get Help With Grief and Addiction Today
If you are worried about managing grief while in rehab or have any other concerns about addiction, then we at Rehab Clinics Group can help. Our network of centres provides leading residential addiction treatment and can give you the tools and belief to start leading a better life. For more information, call us now at 08004700382 or text HELP to 83222.
