Coping with Emotion

What a Drug Rehab Should Have: Developing the Ability to Cope with Emotion

 

A person who has relied on drug or alcohol abuse to dull life’s pain for years also loses the ability to cope with his own emotional responses. As he abused drugs and alcohol, he (or she) learned a new way to cope with painful emotions: just blot them out with intoxication. Unfortunately, as painful emotions are blocked, a person loses the ability to feel anything. Joy and happiness are dim memories. The person’s mode of operation in life is just keeping the drugs coming, keeping the emotions blocked. There is no faster way to ruin his own life.

Recovery Must Address Emotions and How to Cope with Them

For an addict to achieve full recovery, he must be prepared to go back home after a drug rehabilitation program and cope with those negative emotions. An addict will often need to relearn this skill because it is just that—a skill—and it becomes lost in an addicted lifestyle.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has stated that the purpose of drug and alcohol recovery is to provide a recovering addict with meaningful daily activities, which include a job, independence and the resources to participate in society, to name a few. However, in order to successfully become part of these activities, a person must have control over his emotions. He must have this ability so he can face and overcome the challenges of interacting with other employees or maintaining relationships with friends, family members and others in the community.

 

Life Skills Training which Includes Coping with Emotion

A successful drug rehabilitation program will provide the recovering individual with the life skills necessary to successfully live a sober life. Narconon has unique life skills training which gives a recovering addict usable tools he carries with him when he goes back home to help him cope with emotion and his reaction to the world around him. This supports his new drug-free life.

Perhaps one of the most important elements of this life skills training is in addressing basic communication skills. This is where a person learns how to be comfortable with another person rather than trying to hide or flee. For a person who has spent many years manipulating and lying, this basic skill must be built from the ground up. What follows then is practical experience just delivering and receiving simple communication. What may seem like an utter simplicity for the unaddicted person is rehabilitative for a person in recovery.

 

John came to Narconon addicted to alcohol. He said, “I drank all the time. I was very depressed. I was a very unhappy person.” He had not even progressed through the life skills training when he said he felt ready to deal with his issues, but after the life skills training, he said, “Since I’ve completed the program, I feel great! Life is wonderful. I love waking up every morning. This was the greatest choice I’ve ever made.”

Narconon saves addicted lives by providing them the tools to live a sober life and deal with emotions effectively and positively.

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