As a newly sober person, you may be tempted to respond in the moment rather than letting your emotions cool and assess your situation. You may find yourself saying or doing something that isn’t best for you because of your nerves. However, if you are sick and tired of being drunk or druggy all the time or experiencing substance misuse behaviors, now is not the time to react in these ways. These behaviors might make things worse for yourself if it’s not handled correctly. In this post, we will discuss how you can respond instead of reacting to a bad situation in recovery.
How You Can Respond
Here are some ways to respond instead of react:
Take a Deep Breath
Many times when we feel stressed or anxious, we tend to react without thinking, and such a reaction can cause more stress and anxiety. When this happens, take a moment, clear your mind from stressful thoughts and calm yourself down. As you calm down, ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that could happen?” This will help you figure out how best to handle the situation now.
Evaluate the Situation
When you learn to assess the situation, you will be able to figure out better how best to handle it by seeing the outcome and benefits of a certain decision. Sometimes it can feel like something may just be an ordinary situation that does not require much in terms of intervention. However, there are things you can do so you make sure your decision will not cause any more problems in your life.
Make a Plan
Sometimes reacting to a situation just means taking action without thinking of the consequences. As opposed to this, you can make a plan and think carefully on your decisions so that you can have a better outcome than if you didn’t plan at all. This is particularly important when you are faced with an emergency and need to take action immediately. Ask yourself, “What could I do to solve this problem?” As you think of answers, consider each option carefully so that your plan is effective for what’s needed.
Stay Calm
You know that feeling when you feel as though everything is going wrong and you start to panic? What happens next? Oh, that’s right! You make things worse! If this has ever happened to you before, you already know what we’re talking about here. When you react, it is because your emotions have gotten the best of you, and the situation is out of hand because of it. When this happens, take a step back. Stop for a moment to breathe and take a minute to assess your feelings. Don’t react in the moment, and give yourself time to settle down.
Be Objective
When you feel something deeply, it is easy to take things personally and take the blame for certain situations. However, this is never helpful for you because once you do this, your emotions will get the best of you and only make things worse for yourself. Instead of blaming yourself for things that are out of your control, put yourself in another mindset where you look at the situation objectively. By assessing yourself objectively, you can see the positive things you have in your life and focus on them instead of feeling as though everything is against you.
Find an Outside Opinion
Although you may be capable of solving problems on your own, sometimes there are just some things that are best left to the professionals. There are times when it’s just easier to get a second opinion from someone who has more experience than you do. They can give you a better idea of how best to handle the situation and help you find solutions to the problem.
Get Some Rest
Sometimes your emotions will get you worked up, and you won’t have much more energy to take care of things like everyday tasks. When that happens, it is best that you take some time off from everything else so if nothing else, you can rest and regain your energy to face the problem head-on.
Just Let Go
There will be times when you feel overwhelmed with the situation you are in, and you can’t seem to find a way to handle it. Sometimes the best thing to do is just let go of it. You can’t change something until you face it head-on and learn how best to manage it without losing your mind in the process. Take a deep breath, clear your mind from stressful thoughts and focus on what needs to be done so you can have a better outcome. In conclusion, it is important that you learn how to respond instead of reacting. If you think about it, reacting can sometimes have a negative outcome because of your emotions taking over the situation. However, when you respond, you look at the situation objectively and think carefully before doing things that may make things worse for yourself. For any help you need, please contact us on 614-705-0611.