How to Get Back On Track (After A Relapse)! 🛑

Are you stuck in a relapse and it feels like you just can't get out of it? Well, if so, this video is for you because it will tell you exactly what you need to do to get yourself unstuck and back on track. For those of you who are new here, I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and you're watching Put the Shuttle down, the YouTube channel designed to help you understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your life and your family back on track and get back to living the life that you want to live. And on this channel, we are all about practical advice and strategies. And you're going to get a good, healthy dose of that today, because today we're going to talk about how to get yourself unstuck from that relapse cycle that you're in now. The key to this whole thing is you have got to move into action, because part of the reason why you're stuck in that relapse cycle is because you keep telling yourself these, like, vague promises, okay, today is the last day, or Monday's the last day, or when I use the last of this, that's it. I'm not getting anymore. You keep telling yourself it's going to be different tomorrow or later or some version of that, but you're not putting any action behind that. It's just these vague promises. And as you probably already know, if nothing changes, nothing changes. You have got to do more than that. So let's take a look at some specific actions that you can take. The first thing I want you to do is I want you to stop and think and take a little inventory here for a second about what kind of bad influences do you have hanging around in your life now, I mean several things when I say bad influences. Like, for example, are you keeping drugs, alcohol, or paraphernalia around so that it's easy to get? If so, that is going to continue to sabotage you. You have got to get rid of it. If it's there, it's a temptation. Now, you might be telling yourself, oh, I'm strong. I can overcome that. And maybe eventually you can. But early on, when you're trying to make big changes, you don't need to make it any harder on yourself than it has be. So if you've got the substance around, get rid of it. If you've got the paraphernalia around, get rid of it. If you drink wine and you've got wine glasses around, put them up in a box in the attic, do something. Make it where it's not easily available. Now, another thing that I mean when I say get rid of bad influences that could be people in your life. Are you putting yourself around people that either live that kind of lifestyle that you're trying to get rid of and it keeps you stuck in wanting it, it keeps you stuck in glamorizing the lifesty. Are you putting yourself around people that have some kind of stake in keeping you sick? Like maybe they're your dealer and they make money by keeping you sick. You have got to get rid of these people. Another kind of person that you may want to think about at least distancing yourself from is anybody that just brings a ton of negativity to you. Do they keep you stuck? Do they keep you down? Do they keep you feeling terrible about yourself? If you can't get rid of them, at least get some distance from them because it's dragging you down and you don't need that. Now a third thing that you might want to consider getting rid of is any kind of negative thought processes that you're having. Are you keeping your own self stuck? Now examples of this might be self pities or resentments that you're going over and over in your head because these are the ways that you're keeping yourself. Making excuses for why to make more bad decisions. All of these things have got to go. It is time to clean house. Now don't tell yourself when I finish what I have, literally do this right now. You can do this while you're listening to this video. You can put your headphones in and listen. You don't even have to look at me. I look the same. Nothing special. Go get rid of these things that you need to do. Delete the numbers from your phone. Block the numbers that you know have your number and that you don't want to hear from. Decide that now is the time. Getting yourself out of a relapse is something that you need to take steps on when you're ready. And the fact that you're listening to this video tells me that you're ready. So let's take action on it now. Now, the second thing that I want you to do is just as soon as you get rid of all that stuff is I want you to step into the light. Now what I mean by that is, I mean you're gonna have to bring to the surface what has been going down. And I know everything inside of you doesn't want to tell your sponsor, doesn't want to tell your family, or maybe if they already know, you don't want to tell them the extent of it, because maybe you're telling yourself, I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to make them feel bad. I don't want to stress them out. But you know that the truth of it is a big part of why you're not telling it is because you want to leave it on the table either. You don't want them to take actions. You don't want them to know that you're not supposed to be doing these things. You have got to bring it into the light. You cannot recover in secrecy and darkness because those things fuel addiction. Now, you don't have to tell everybody, but you need to tell some people, and you know who those people are. Because you know a big reason why you might be staying stuck in this relapse is because you are keeping it a secret. And you keep telling yourself that you're going to do better tomorrow. But no one else knows that. So it's so easy for you when tomorrow comes, to say, I'll do it tomorrow, the next tomorrow. And on and on we go. Step yourself into the light. And the third thing I want you to do, and you can do this while you're stepping yourself into the light, is I want you to make some either appointments or dates or schedule. I want you to go ahead and make a plan for more action that you're going to take. Maybe that's. I'm going to go to my home group every Tuesday. I'm going to call up my sponsor and say, hey, I've not been doing good. I need to go to a meeting every day. Can you hold me accountable for that? Whatever it is, I want you to go ahead and set it and put it on your calendar. I want you to make a commitment. Commit out loud to someone else, not just to yourself, because it's easy to break our promises to ourselves. Right? Commit it out loud. That might be making an appointment with a counselor. That might be talking to a recovery coach, that might be blocking out your lunch hour every day to attend an online recovery meeting. Whatever it is, go ahead right now and schedule it and tell someone else, your accountability partner, that that's what you're gonna do. And to check in with you and ask you about it to make sure you're staying on track. Can you see how taking all these action steps really is different than just this vague promise of I'm gon better? That's right. No more vague promises. If you will do these things, it's going to be much harder to continue in that relapse and much easier to get yourself out of it. Now, another action step that you can take right now that is super simple is you can sign up for our 30 day jump start program. It's totally free and it's just a short video message that comes to your inbox every day that'll help you keep motivated, stay on track and overcome roadblocks. It's going to help you keep your head on straight. I'm going to put the link in the description and you get yourself signed up for that right now and you can consider that one of your appointments that you're making an appointment to watch a recovery video every day. Now, if you don't already have someone else in your life that's helping you with your recovery, like a coach, a sponsor or a counselor, then you might want to consider getting yourself a counselor or a coach. And one really good place to do that is BetterHelp. Now, BetterHelp is an online counseling service that actually sponsors this channel. And the thing I really love about BetterHelp is that you can at any point, if you're watching this video and it 3:30 in the morning, you can go on their site right now and make those appointments. It is super easy. And the other thing I really like about it is that you have numerous ways in which you can communicate with your counselor. Now, maybe going to counseling seems strange or it seems intimidating or you're not really sure if you're gonna like it or if it's gonna work for you. Online counseling couldn't be less intimidating, right? You're doing it from the comfort of your own home, your own place. And if it's that terrible, you can literally your phone or your laptop off. There is seriously no easier, less intimidating way to get started than to book an online appointment. I'll put the links to that in the description below. And bonus, if you use these links, you actually get a discount. Now, while you are taking those action steps that I know you are in the process of doing right now, this very moment, I want you to listen to this next video on Relapse. I'm going to put my entire playlist up here for you so you can get your head on straight. You can start taking these actions and get back in control so you can listen live the life that you want to live.