A Guide to Recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder

Awareness of The Problem

Alongside clinical assessment, one part of recovery at THE BALANCE is learning how addiction can affect thinking and behavior. Research has identified changes in brain systems involved in reward, stress and self-control, but does not fully explain every individual’s experience of addiction.

When a client begins their addiction recovery journey, they often come with a lot of shame and regret. Alcohol use disorder is not a moral failing. Changes in brain function can make controlling drinking more difficult, but do not mean that everyone loses all ability to make choices.

Cravings can make it harder to resist drinking. Alcohol use disorder can disrupt prefrontal brain systems involved in planning, decision-making and impulse control; these systems do not simply turn off during craving. Understanding these difficulties may help clients recognize patterns and develop coping strategies, but education alone is not sufficient treatment. Torres says: “Awareness is a crucial part of the recovery process.”

Identify Triggers and Develop Coping Strategies

When an individual enters rehab, one of the hardest steps is taken for them just by arriving. Rehabilitation may reduce exposure to some external triggers, but internal triggers, distress and cravings can persist. This can provide space to explore factors associated with drinking and practice ways to manage them.  Another part of recovery is recognizing triggers and developing coping strategies. Torres explains: “We have to understand a person’s reality and environment on a deep level. Everything that is emotionally difficult for them needs to be laid out and analyzed.” This is a core aspect of behavioral therapy.

Plan of Action & Executive Function

The next step is creating a plan of action. Recovery can require continuing support, with its duration and intensity adapted to individual needs. We have to lay out a change of behaviors and dynamics that works for their schedule. The aim is to practice coping, planning and emotional-regulation skills, rather than promise to restore a particular brain state. An individualized daily plan may help some people practice new routines. Behavioral therapies can address both thoughts and actions; planning every thirty minutes is not a universal treatment requirement or an established best approach.

While at THE BALANCE, this executive function plan is built and evolved with you in real-time. Depending on the agreed program, supportive activities may include massage, acupuncture, art or music sessions. Their suitability and availability are assessed individually; they do not replace established treatment for alcohol use disorder.

Family Therapy

Where appropriate and with the client’s consent, family and loved ones may be invited to participate in sessions and preparation for the return home. Torres says, “The people who will be with the client when they return home need to understand what is happening and where they are at.” If the schedule of the loved ones allows for it, we invite them into the healing process and prepare them for continuing recovery after treatment.

Aftercare & Follow-Up

Continuing-care planning includes scheduling follow-up appointments with the client; it is not a final endpoint in recovery. We update and identify any new triggers appearing now that they have returned to their environment. Our clients often live high-intensity lives with constantly fluctuating schedules. We have to review the plan of action that we’ve created and see if it still makes sense, making amendments where necessary to stay on track. This is a pivotal part of the healing process.