Assess your mental wellness after rehab
All recovering addicts know that when they leave rehab, they have to continue to take steps to stay off substances. These steps are inevitably related to staying healthy, both on a physical and mental level. Addiction is an illness that affects both the body and the mind.
Staying physically healthy takes work. However, tracking your physical health is relatively straightforward. You can count your steps, check your heart rate, have regular blood tests, and assess your fitness levels when you exercise. There are also certain choices which you understand are less healthy and you can keep track of how often you take the unhealthy route.
Mental health is somewhat more difficult to track. Where do you even start? You cannot do a simple blood check or count your steps. Fortunately, there are ways to keep track of your mental health. While most people are not well accustomed to them, you can use the following markers to assess your mental wellness after rehab.
Sleep Patterns and Fatigue
One of the most common manifestations of mental illness is abnormal sleep patterns and fatigue. Someone struggling with depression may find it difficult to get out of bed and feel a lethargy throughout the day that prevents them from getting anything done. Some suffering from anxiety may struggle to sleep because of the thoughts running through their head.
Irregular sleep patterns can be a sign of physical health issues as well, but they often correlate with mental health issues. Ask yourself if it is taking you a long time to fall asleep if you are oversleeping if your sleep is restful or restless, and whether you feel tired throughout the day, even when you have had a good night’s sleep.
Procrastination and Avoidance
Do you struggle to get day-to-day tasks done? Most people dismiss procrastination and avoidance as simple “laziness”. Laziness is seen as a moral failing, and many of us buy into this. We assume that we are procrastinating because we just don’t want to do something.
However, procrastination can be a good indicator of mental health. There are reasons people procrastinate that go beyond simply not wanting to do something. After all, procrastination generally causes more distress for the person, who knows they would feel better if they just got the task done.
A number of things can be behind procrastination. Anxiety that you won’t succeed at getting the task done can make it difficult to even try. Thoughts and feelings of worthlessness can make it feel like there’s no point in doing the task anyway. There may also be self-destructiveness behind procrastination that is linked to mental health issues.
Ask yourself whether you are procrastinating to such a degree that it negatively impacts your life. If so, why are you procrastinating? Yes, it is understandable that people often find it difficult to motivate themselves for the day-to-day grind in the work world. However, people who are mentally well are able to do what they need to do, even if they don’t really want to.
Replacement Addictions
One of the biggest indicators of mental health issues recovering addicts should look out for is the use of replacement addictions. Recovery from addiction takes more than simply stopping using substances. It requires the development of healthy coping mechanisms to manage life in a healthy way.
It is all too easy for recovering addicts to find replacement addictions. Sometimes, these addictions are just as dangerous as their original addiction, while at other times, the substitute addiction is easier to manage.
Replacement addictions include but are not limited to:
- overeating
- undereating
- sex addiction
- workaholism
- gambling
- over-exercising
- nicotine
- shopping
Replacement addictions can undo the work you have done in rehab to build healthy emotional tools. Ask yourself whether there is something you turn to when you feel distressed. If so, you can assess your compulsion to use it as an indicator of mental health issues.
Isolation
Some individuals always want to be around other people. Others prefer to get more alone time. However, mentally healthy individuals do not isolate themselves. Isolation is often used by people who don’t feel like they have the emotional energy to engage with the world. It can be a sign that they don’t consider themselves worthy of friendship, or a symptom of social anxiety.
In today’s world, isolation is somewhat more difficult to measure. After all, many of us are working from home and not having nearly as much social engagement as we once did. Nonetheless, it is still possible to tell when you are choosing isolation, even if you are doing so unwittingly.
Ask yourself if you have been avoiding seeing friends and family. Do you find yourself missing people who you could pick up the phone and call? If so, what is stopping you from doing so? Isolation can indicate that your mental health needs care.
Tracking your mental health is not as intuitive as tracking your physical health. However, there are still markers you can look to in order to assess your mental wellbeing.
