Recovery isn’t unsuccessful because individuals are not invested. It’s because the brain, having been hijacked by alcohol or drugs for months or even years, forgets how to function through uncharted time without resorting to the same old habits. A routine isn’t a mere recommendation, it is a strategic element used to help the brain in recovery to hold on to something familiar.
Routine as scaffolding for the recovering brain
When a person is actively using, the almost immediate physiological effect of the drug is experienced in the brain’s reward circuitry. This results in the remapping of the brains reward system. The brain adapts to the presence of the drug and registers it as something necessary for survival. In the case of opiates, the brain’s natural regulation of dopamine, a critical neurotransmitter that regulates our feelings of pleasure and reward, is altered in a way that other less immediately-rewarding activities are no longer recognized by the brain as rewarding. Eating a good meal with friends, having a good work out on a sunny day, even other parts of drug taking and drug seeking behavior are all draining because the reward/pleasure dopamine response is blunted or ignored by the brain in light of the immediate reward of drug use.
Recovery involves the long and deliberate process of retraining the brains reward system to recognize and appreciate the natural rewards it has evolved to want and need. According to the model of behavioral psychology, the brain forms new neural pathways best when new behaviors are repeated often enough. A routine isn’t a schedule that keeps you from being bored. It is training your brain to expect and be responsive to the healthy inputs from the new life you are building. Every meal you have at the same time every day, every morning when you run, when you sit down with your group every Thursday at 6:30 pm, you’re laying down tracks that will be easier to follow the more they are used. The brain loves repetition. Change is tiring for the brain because it has to work harder to adapt. If every hour of every day requires a new decision because it is unstructured and unplanned, the brain will have to limit its function to the functions of survival until its energy improves.
The physiology of predictability
The content describes how sleep and meal scheduling can have a significant impact on a person’s early recovery journey. Getting enough consistent sleep helps in getting the body’s internal clock back on track because during active addiction it is often severely disturbed. Poor sleeping habits can lead to high levels of cortisol which can cause stress and is known to increase cravings.
Similarly, having regular meals helps in maintaining stable blood sugar levels, which can impact mood and lead to irritability. If a person is Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired they are at higher risk of relapse. Hence, following a routine that takes care of these factors can help in managing these vulnerabilities more effectively.
The transition from treatment to independent living
For most people, the toughest stretch of the addiction timeline doesn’t come shortly after they become addicted. It comes weeks, maybe months later, when they’re trying to stay sober in an environment where the cues and triggers to use still proliferate, but where they’re expected to resist independently.
This is why working with a Step By Step Addiction treatment Clinic during early recovery matters beyond the medical dimension – structured treatment environments teach the habits that need to be running automatically before someone returns to independent life. The routine built inside treatment becomes the template carried out.
Add in the fact there’s been no time to build new habits and routines. We’re pretty much all creatures of habit. Those habits can serve us, unserv us, or just keep us rolling along. Refreshing them all takes work and time.
Micro-wins and the return of self-efficacy
One of addiction’s insidious, insidious damages is to your sense of competence. The ability to carry something to the end, to trust yourself, all that gets stripped away. Routine rebuilds it, through something boring but nonetheless true: small, repeated successes.
Making a bed. Showing up on time to a morning group. Making a meal instead of skipping it. These are the proofs a person has, every day, that they can do a thing they said they were going to do. CBT formalizes this process under the heading of behavioral activation – you schedule positive things not because they feel good in the moment, but because they build the self-efficacy necessary to continue to do the things that will lead to recovery.
Accountability partners, sponsors … all the same, really. If you know one other person in the world is keeping track of whether you showed up or not, the decision to no-show is suddenly relieved from being an internal negotiation to an external commitment. Which, right now, you’re much better at keeping.
Consistency isn’t rigidity
A routine can be seen as boring and restrictive if it’s not well-designed. The key is to create a routine that leaves space for flexibility, social interactions, hobbies, and other healthy activities. It’s important that the routine works for the individual, not the other way around.
