Life Skills
Many people with a substance use disorder lack many life skills due to the severity of their substance use and it hindering their ability to cope with daily life situations and events. At Everlast Recovery Centers, we believe in treating the whole person, which means addressing all of their issues. This includes teaching people the life skills they need for lasting recovery.
What Are Life Skills?
In recovery, life skills are the primary tools people will need to stay healthy, take care of daily life tasks, and have better relationships. Life skills in recovery focus on the tools people can use to prevent relapse and avoid situations that might put them in risky situations. Life skills taught in a residential program may include:
- Learning healthy communication skills
- Housekeeping and activities of daily living
- Nutrition and healthy meal planning
- Budgeting and financial literacy
- Resume building and career planning
- Recreation and hobby development
- Exercise and physical activity
- Mindfulness-based strategies
- Recovery support
- Parenting
How Do We Teach Life Skills?
People in early recovery have a hard time retaining information from a lecture. The most beneficial format for teaching life skills is providing hands-on activities and time to process the new skill. At Everlast Recovery Centers, we use various modalities and group formats to teach life skills. Our exceptional and qualified staff will work with clients on tasks that improve these skills.
At Everlast Recovery Centers we teach life skills through our comprehensive clinical program that includes:
Modeling
No one learns communication skills without practicing communication. A therapist or other treatment staff will model good communication skills by using the skills themselves. For example, modeling active listening helps our clients learn to hear more of what others tell them.
Self-Monitoring
Clients will often use worksheets or journaling where they track how often they engage in positive or negative behavior. Tracking behaviors educate our clients about accountability and the importance of building daily routines. Clients can use tracking to self-monitor almost any behavior or set of behaviors.
Hands-On Learning
People with substance use disorders often neglect to eat or lack the resources to access nutritious foods. To help our clients in early recovery learn to eat healthier, Everlast provides nutrition and cooking classes. Staff may also work with the clients on budgeting so that they can incorporate nutritious foods into their weekly meal planning.
Repetition
To build life skills, people must continuously practice the skills even if they think they have learned everything they need to know. At Everlast, for example, our clients make their bed each morning. While not a huge change, a daily activity like this can serve as the first step in a healthy morning routine.
Stress Relief
Stress can push people in recovery back toward substance abuse. Learning tools to manage stress helps people resist the urge to return to using drugs or alcohol. These skills may include mindfulness or meditation techniques, identifying enjoyable activities, or productive ways to avoid idle time or feelings of boredom.
No one should consider learning fundamental life skills as too basic for them. While in addiction, people can lose skills they used to have and forget or abandon healthy habits they used to follow. Almost everyone will benefit from learning or at least polishing these skills.
Life Skills and Addiction
For someone with a substance use disorder, life may revolve around finding and using drugs. Everything else, including basic self-care, can be forgotten during the chaos of addiction. Some people can maintain some of these basic life skills, but others will begin to break down and not be able to manage the daily tasks of their life. Lack of life skills can also be a decisive factor in pushing people into substance abuse. For a person whose life situation feels unmanageable, drugs can feel like the only option for making it bearable. However, learning essential life skills improves people’s chances of retaining employment, rebuilding damaged relationships, and avoiding slipping back into substance abuse.
No one should consider learning fundamental life skills as too basic for them. While in addiction, people can lose skills they used to have and forget or abandon healthy habits they used to follow. Almost everyone will benefit from learning or at least polishing these skills.
Life Skills in Residential Treatment
At Everlast, we implement the different approaches to teaching life skills utilizing a variety of therapeutic modalities. Group therapy in our program opens up new ways to teach life skills such as healthy communication. The safe setting and absence of actual conflict let people explore alternative methods for communicating. The kitchen area at Everlast also allows people to practice cooking healthy meals under the supervision of our expert support staff.
During a residential stay in our program, our clients will also follow a routine that includes making beds, attending programming, and other daily living activities.
Residential treatment at Everlast Recovery Centers gives people the time and space to practice healthy living skills. When our clients discharge from our facility, they will leave with the tools to have a successful life in recovery.