Learning stress management can help you stay calm and maintain your sobriety and clean living long after your recovery at Integrative Life Center. Let our trained, compassionate therapists help you choose better ways of coping through our mental health treatment center in Nashville. If you have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder, we can provide the necessary addiction treatment for a holistic treatment experience.
What Is Stress Management?
Stress management techniques intended to help you deal with stress that you face in your everyday life as well as in recovery. Our science-based and holistic approaches show you how to analyze specific events and people that trigger stressful feelings. By taking positive actions, you can minimize stress and frustration.
Eliminate Unnecessary Stress
Instead of managing stress, this strategy helps you remove it altogether. You may surprise yourself by the number of stressful situations you can avoid in everyday life. This doesn’t mean ignoring situations that require your attention. However, it’s important to learn how to say no if you already have more on your plate than you can handle.
Put stressful people at the top of your list. If talking about your addiction recovery stresses you out, reserve these conversations for your therapy sessions. Avoid topics that trigger stress, such as religion or politics.
Look for New Ways to Alter Stressful Situations
Cognitive behavior therapy teaches you to modify your reaction to situations. However, if you can avoid the situation or find a permanent solution, you can eliminate a source of aggravation. Repressing your feelings is not healthy. Instead, acknowledge them and work through different scenarios to remove the stress from the situation.
Try to look for ways that you can compromise so that all parties walk away without bitterness. You can gain a lot of self-confidence by managing situations in a proactive manner.
Changing Your Attitude
Dialectical behavioral therapy emphasizes emotion regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. This approach helps you build emotional and cognitive regulation while learning about the people, places, and events that trigger your stress. By acknowledging and proactively processing your negative emotions, you can slowly reduce the levels of stress in your life.
Reframing the problem allows you to process stressful situations with a positive outlook logically. This has broad implications for avoiding substance use disorders or a relapse.
Keep the big picture in mind when you evaluate the level of concern any one event deserves. Don’t expect everything to work out perfectly, or you may spend a lot of time having to adjust your worldview.
“Letting Go” Helps You Reduce Stress
In our mental health treatment program, clients learn to let go of things beyond their control. You can’t always avoid stressful situations. Sometimes, accepting them helps you move on. Painful situations include the death of a loved one or the breakup of a marriage.
At such times, you cannot roll back to prevent the loss. When you attempt to control things beyond your capability, you could find yourself facing substance abuse addiction once again. Instead, let it all go. A clear mind is a happy, well-adjusted mind.
Just Relax During Mental Health Treatment
Whether you come to Integrative Life Center for mental health treatment or addiction treatment, relaxation can help you with stress management. Clear part of your schedule to do the things you love the most. Finally, nurture yourself by eliminating as much stress as possible.
Keep your sense of humor intact. It can keep you going through detox, recovery, and beyond. After all, laughter can dispel stress.
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle for Good Stress Management
A healthy body and mind help you better manage stress. Here are some basic tips to get you started at home or during recovery:
- Exercise every day
- Eat a healthy diet
- Get enough sleep
- Avoid drugs and alcohol
Stress Management Treatment at Integrative Life Center
At Integrative Life Center in Nashville, TN, we provide holistic mental health treatment as well as regular psychotherapy approaches. Contact us at 615.645.3735 for more information on overcoming your substance use disorder and ways to manage stress.
