You may think of detox, psychotherapy, and 12-step groups regarding addiction recovery. Do you know that life skills have also been part of a full spectrum of treatment programs? By learning essential self-management skills, recovering individuals can better integrate into family life, work, and society. This is particularly important for young people recovering from addiction and looking for success during recovery.

Success During Recovery: What Are Life Skills?

Life skills are also important for relapse prevention. This is because many people with substance addiction have formed unhealthy habits that neglect daily routines in life. The chaos and mess may continue to create and accumulate stress, which leads to cravings and potential relapses. The chance of long-term recovery is higher once they learn how to manage domestic chores, work responsibilities, and relationships. Below are the top six life skills recovering individuals need to consider.

#1. Domestic Care For Personal Belongings

Essential self-management begins with the home environment. Apart from personal hygiene, recovering individuals need to maintain a clean, orderly, and calming environment. These include regularly cleaning the living space, doing laundry, grocery shopping, preparing meals, using basic tools, car maintenance, and planning social events at home.

These domestic chores may seem mundane and petty, but if a recovering individual cannot do these chores, he or she will rely on others. This reliance may foster an unhealthy co-dependency. By managing these chores alone, a recovering individual can effectively reduce stress and triggers in the home environment.

#2. Maintain Good Financial Health

Wellness has multiple dimensions. Financial wellness is one of them. If a person has a healthy financial life, he or she will not be struggling with too much stress in this area. More work opportunities will also be open. For young adults in recovery, financial skills are crucial to the quality of life in early adulthood.

Basic financial skills include how to create and stick to a budget, how to make wise purchases, how to keep financial records organized, how to establish and maintain good credit, etc. Understanding the importance of paying bills on time is also one that many recovering individuals neglect. In today’s economic climate, a person also needs to learn how to build a personal financial buffer zone to stay afloat even during an economic crisis.

#3. Initiate and Maintain Social Relationships to Support Success During Recovery

Laguna Shores Recovery Center understands that sometimes recovering individuals experience struggles in social life. To some, addiction may have disappointed and distanced many family members and friends. Others have never been successful in keeping relationships healthy.

Relationship skills are soft skills that are hard to measure. But in general, good relationship skills include listening, communicating, empathizing, and resolving conflicts. Many people prefer to initiate virtual relationships instead of investing in real-life relationships. But even knowing how to put your best self forward on social media is a skill.

#4. Find and Maintain Employment

People with substance addiction may not be able to keep their jobs. In recovery, they need to learn essential job skills to help them succeed in the labor market. These job skills are essential for young adults in recovery too. Their long-term recovery depends on having the right job skills, which lead to financial wellness.

Basic job skills include the ability to identify strengths and values through building your resume, the ability to find a job that matches one’s interests and strengths, and the ability to go through interviews to negotiate compensation. Even when one is lucky enough to keep a job, there are work-related skills such as maintaining healthy boundaries with the employer and co-workers.

#5. Use Life Skills to Maintain a Work-Life Balance

Laguna Shores Recovery Center understands that For working professionals in recovery, the biggest challenge might be maintaining a work-life balance, which is crucial to stress management and relapse prevention. One needs to know the rights of an employee with past addiction. The employer must make accommodations to support an employee’s recovery schedule.

Work-life balance skills also require good communication. One must safeguard the boundaries with the employer and other employees who may share certain responsibilities. Failure to do that may lead to a person being overwhelmed by work requirements, leading to work-related stress and anxiety.

#6. Manage Time Effectively to Maximize Success During Recovery

The importance of time management cannot be overemphasized. In keeping a personal schedule or completing work-related tasks, time management skills help a person with efficiency. But for recovering individuals, time management skills also include building time to relax, even during a busy work day.

With good time management, a recovering individual can balance work with life and other areas of responsibility, such as parenting or caring for family members. Like all other life skills, time management can be taught and practiced until it becomes part of a healthy lifestyle.

Substance addiction may rob you of basic life skills, such as maintaining personal hygiene and eating healthy foods. Essential life skills such as domestic care, self-management, and financial sufficiency are important for recovering individuals who try to integrate back into society. Basic life skills also prevent the chance of relapse. To boost your chance of recovery and transition to normal work and life, you need to work with treatment centers that offer these essential life skill classes. Life skills are part of the continuum of addiction recovery care. We, here at Laguna Shores Recovery Center, provide unmatched care around the clock. Our team focuses on your journey of recovery. Call us at 954-688-5806 now.