Exercise can be highly beneficial to those trying to recover from addiction in many more ways than you would think. The benefits of exercise are far-reaching. Exercise can help distract sufferers from their cravings, provide them with structure and a solid routine.
It also shows promise when exercise regimes are maintained as the patient can follow through on something beneficial to themselves. Exercise is often encouraged when sufferers are going through treatments, and here are a few reasons why.
Providing Structure
If you begin to fill your days with activities and exercise, you’ll have less time to turn to alcohol or drugs when difficult thoughts start to enter your head. Instead of going out for a drink that night, you can remind yourself of how you’ll feel the following day when you have to attend that yoga class you’ve already booked and paid for or the run that you’ve arranged with your neighbor.
Finding the mental strength to say no can be challenging, so why not find a partner or accountability friend or buddy who will help you stay committed to your new routine and you in turn can encourage your buddy to exercise more regularly.
Take Uptime
Committing to working out or exercise regimes takes time. Once you decide to fight your addiction, you’ll find yourself with so much more time on your hands. Your old hobby took up most of your day as you constantly thought about your next high, when you’d get it and where you’d get it from. All that time you spent recovering from the day before can now be invested in your body and your health.
By joining an aerobics class or signing up for a membership at your local gym, you’ll discover a new community to spend your time with and might even make some new friends who will encourage you to dedicate more time to your new hobby and make it your lifestyle instead. A clean, healthy, and strong body is an investment and takes a lot of dedication, time, and commitment to yourself.
If you have space in your garden or inside your house then get some rubber lock tiles and some small gym equipment to create a makeshift gym where you can exercise even when you don't have the time to go to the actual gym."
Positive Mindset
Alcohol and drugs do terrible things to your body and release certain toxins that will make you feel bad and drain you of any energy you may have accumulated. You’ll start to sleep more, feel more energized and energetic if you decide to spend your time on more beneficial activities such as exercising.
By going for a run every day, you’ll push your body and reach goals you never knew you could achieve. Running gives you time to think about what you want for yourself and how you can achieve it. Once you’ve finished your run, you’ll feel like you have achieved something good and be rewarded with a surge of positivity.
Running is also a good release for anything that may be bothering you. Instead of turning to a substance to distract you from whatever you are going through, the exercise will help you confront it and work it out. As your body starts to recover and your fitness builds, you’ll begin to explore new forms of activity.
More Health Benefits
Exercise heals your body and your brain. There is plenty of research proving that exercise can benefit your body, whether you’re in recovery from an addiction or not. Your cardiovascular health will improve, and you’ll also reduce the risk of some types of cancer, boost your immune system and relieve specific symptoms of depression.
Drug abuse can affect nerve connections in the brain. Exercising is a great tool to combat this effect and heal your brain. As your body starts to heal and strengthen along with your mind, you’ll begin to return to a more normal state and feel more motivated to recover from your addiction.
Beat the Cravings
Exercise fills your day and distracts you from your usual thoughts, so there’s no surprise that you’ll start to notice your cravings begin to fade, and you won’t need to rely on alcohol or drugs for your high anymore. The adrenaline and distraction exercise provides the perfect healthy replacement for your addiction. You’ll be able to go out more and make more social connections.
Those suffering from addiction tend to suffer from various mental health disorders at the same time. By interacting more, being healthier, and exercising, symptoms of depression and anxiety will begin to disappear, and you’ll start to feel your mind opening up again.
Wake Up Call
The bottom line is that exercise is highly beneficial to those trying to recover from an addiction. Exercise is often used in conjunction with other forms of treatments for patients. The most challenging part is the first step. You’ll want to come up with excuses for why you can’t take part, but you must see how beneficial taking part in physical exercise will be for you during your recovery process.
Figuring out what you can do and getting started is the best thing you can do for yourself but is often the most challenging step. Once you’ve taken that step, you’ll show yourself and others that you are more than your addiction and that you are capable of following through with things. This step will indicate how serious you are about your recovery and will give you time to contemplate just where you are and where you want to be one day.
Once you realize the toll drugs and alcohol have taken on your body, you’ll begin to see the importance of getting clean and healthy so that you can play an active role in the lives of your loved ones and look after yourself.
Set yourself goals; work towards a marathon, and show yourself that you can do it. Once you conquer these smaller goals, you’ll feel more encouraged to beat your addiction, and your body will already be there waiting for you to say no to the drugs and alcohol. A healthy body and an active mind are some of the most addictive feelings in the world.
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