Women Practice Healthy Coping Skills in Drug Rehab

Every woman on the planet has coping skills for everyday life.  Does this mean all coping skills are healthy choices?  No!  Many women use coping skills that may seem to work for the short term but actually harm them in the long run.  This is especially true of women with addiction.  Drug rehab is an opportunity to learn about making coping skills as healthy as possible.

What Coping Skills Are For

Every woman needs coping skills, not just people with big problems.  During each day, she comes across disappointments, changes in plans, and unexpected problems that need to be solved.  Coping skills allow her to keep functioning by reducing stress and allowing her to focus the task ahead of them.  Men and women often using different types of coping skills.  Women are more inclined to talk with friends or family and express her emotions outwardly.  Men are more likely to take some quiet time or use a physical outlet.

Unhealthy coping skills can include ignoring a problem repeatedly, lying, yelling, blaming others, creating emotional drama, playing “poor me”, isolating for long periods of time, and running away from the situation.  Let’s be clear – nobody’s perfect.  Nearly everyone has a few unhealthy coping skills they use at times. 

Becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol is a huge unhealthy way of coping all on its own.  Getting drunk or high frequently helps to block or alter reality in a woman’s mind.   Usually, a woman addicted to drugs and alcohol is using many of the unhealthy coping skills as well.

Helpful Actions Can Become Unhealthy Coping Skills

Clearly a woman recovering from addiction has to work to do beyond just getting sober.  Women sometimes develop coping skills that work in a certain way for a certain time.  They may continue to use these out of habit long past its original use, even if it has greatly harmed their lives. 

For example, if a woman needed to physically run away to escape a confrontation with her physically abusive husband, she was probably spared injury or even death.  However, if she continued to run away from other problems long after she left her husband, this once-lifesaving coping skill would become unhealthy.  She may keep using it only because changing habits is difficult to do.  The hell you know always seems better than the hell you don’t know.

Learning Healthy Coping Skills in Drug Rehab

So how does a woman with addiction unlearn her bad coping skills and replace them with healthy ones?  It’s not an easy task – changing habits is a very difficult thing to do.  You must practice new skills to replace the old ones before you get rid of the old ones.  If you simply try to eliminate the old ones, they will pop back up the moment they are needed. 

The Orchid Recovery Center for Women immerses women in many forms of physical exercise, nutritious eating, cognitive and emotional therapy, art therapy, and meditation.  All of these can be used as ways to nourish the body, reduce stress, and improve focus.  All of these do what coping skills are meant for but without the nasty side effects. 

Feel stressed?  Do ten minutes of yoga.  Have a challenging meeting or task coming?  Meditate for a few minutes to focus your mind.  While these activities may not have the intense punch or dulling effect of drugs and alcohol, they are naturally effective ways to cope with life’s challenges.  When done regularly, your body and mind will look to those coping skills for restoration instead of the drugs and alcohol.