When you think about sobriety, you most likely think of abstinence from drugs and alcohol. While this is accurate, sobriety also tends to entail emotional and psychological growth, skill development, and addressing factors that may have contributed to your substance use. Learning about emotional sobriety, including its definition and strategies for achieving it, can be helpful during the process.
So, what is emotional sobriety? How does treatment help you achieve it? Providing evidence-based, trauma-informed care in Kentucky, Roaring Brook Recovery is here to help. Let’s explore emotional sobriety meaning and how it can make a difference in your recovery.
Emotional Sobriety Meaning
Emotional sobriety refers to the ability to process and regulate emotions in a healthy way, without using drugs and alcohol to cope. Research shows us that adults with substance use disorders can display greater difficulties in emotion regulation compared to adults without substance use disorders. In turn, learning effective emotion regulation skills can promote better treatment outcomes. This is an important goal we focus on in therapy for addiction at Roaring Brook Recovery.
We combine abstinence-based treatment with the concept of emotional sobriety, meaning that our programs can help you:
- Identify your feelings. Being able to name how you feel (e.g., angry, sad) is one of the first steps toward emotion regulation. Our addiction therapists can help you practice this skill.
- Accept your feelings. Treatments like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) will help you use radical acceptance to remove shame, judgment, or “shoulds” (e.g., “I should not feel depressed”) from your emotional experiences. DBT is one of the many therapies used in our programs.
- Learn and use coping strategies. Coping strategies, such as deep breathing, positive self-talk, and engaging in healthy activities, support emotional sobriety by aiding in emotion regulation. Our programs teach skills through evidence-based therapies and supportive holistic treatments.
- Tolerate discomfort. Like radical acceptance, distress tolerance is a common goal in treatments like dialectical behavior therapy. It refers to the ability to navigate through emotional pain in a constructive manner.
Although it can be a learning process, you can strengthen your emotion regulation skills. The more you practice them, the more natural they become. We will always go through challenges in life, and having these skills does not necessarily mean that things will be easy. It means that you will have the tools necessary to get through difficult times.
Addiction and Mental Health Treatment in Kentucky
Providing integrated addiction and mental health treatment in Kentucky, Roaring Brook Recovery is always adapting to meet the needs of our clients. We offer an array of programs and services, including but not limited to:
Partial Hospitalization Program
Our partial hospitalization program (PHP) provides structured treatment for substance use disorders on an outpatient basis. The highest level of care at our center, PHP meets five days per week for about four hours per day. We use a comprehensive, goal-oriented, and personalized treatment approach so that you can gain a comprehensive set of recovery skills. Your treatment plan will entail groups, individual therapy sessions, and other types of treatment.
IOP in Lexington, KY
The intensive outpatient program (IOP) in Lexington, KY, at Roaring Brook Recovery has a lower time commitment than PHP. However, the same effective approach is used. Clients in IOP participate in therapy four days per week for about three hours each, providing the flexibility necessary to balance responsibilities like work or school with treatment.
Sober Living Kentucky
In addition to our addiction treatment programs, Roaring Brook Recovery is proud to provide sober living in Kentucky. Sober housing gives clients the chance to solidify recovery-oriented routines, participate in house meetings, and receive support and guidance from staff in a drug and alcohol-free environment.
Call Roaring Brook Recovery to Learn More About Emotional Sobriety
Roaring Brook Recovery is an addiction and dual-diagnosis treatment center in Kentucky, passionate about the quality of care we provide. We are always adapting to fit the needs of our clients and are here to help you achieve lasting, whole-person recovery from substance abuse. Call Roaring Brook Recovery to learn more about emotional sobriety today at (866) 749-4241.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How does dual-diagnosis treatment support emotional sobriety?
It’s common for people facing addiction to have one or more additional mental health conditions. In this case, dual diagnosis or integrated treatment is recommended. Dual diagnosis treatment can help to support emotional sobriety by giving people a chance to learn how to manage symptoms of co-occurring conditions like anxiety or depression effectively. Some use substances, in part, to self-medicate symptoms of mental health conditions. So, although many factors can play a role in addiction, this can be vital. We offer dual-diagnosis treatment at all care levels.
What is emotional relapse?
There are three stages of relapse, including emotional relapse, mental relapse, and physical relapse. Emotional relapse is characterized by emotional distress, which can trigger your urge to use substances if you do not have healthy ways to address it. This is why learning to identify, validate, and cope with your emotions is so crucial during addiction recovery.
How does emotional sobriety lower the risk of physical relapse?
Emotional sobriety can lower your risk of physical relapse by enhancing resilience and giving you ways to cope with triggers and stressors effectively.
How do drugs and alcohol affect your mental health?
While people may use drugs and alcohol to self-medicate mental health symptoms, it’s also true that substances can negatively impact your mental health. Drug and alcohol abuse causes brain changes, which can affect impulse control, your ability to feel pleasure, decision-making, and emotion regulation. Additionally, drugs and alcohol can exacerbate existing mental health disorders.
How do I achieve emotional sobriety?
One person’s path to emotional sobriety could differ from that of another. Therapy can help you achieve emotional sobriety in more than one way. Addiction treatment professionals at Roaring Brook Recovery can help you explore your barriers to emotional sobriety. For example, unresolved trauma and mental health conditions you may not yet have sustainable ways to cope with. From there, you can work to break through those barriers and learn emotion regulation strategies that work for you.