
Rehab From Addiction Through Sports
Drug or alcohol addiction can be a serious problem that can ruin a person’s life. Fortunately, though, there are ways an addict can kick the habit once and for all, especially through participation in sports. If you or someone you love needs help for a drug or alcohol addiction, this help can be found by replacing drugs or alcohol with sports. It does not matter what type of sport you or your addicted loved one chooses to partake in because any sport can provide a way to escape the cycle of addiction. In case you need further convincing, here are five ways sports can provide rehab from a potentially deadly drug or alcohol addiction.
1. Focus
Becoming skilled at a specific sport requires a lot of attention and dedication to the sport of choice. When you place all of your attention on a sport, you will have less attention to spare on drug or alcohol abuse.
2. Time
A drug or alcohol addiction can take up a lot of an addict’s time. Between thinking about the harmful substance, figuring out how and where to buy the substance, and using the substance, an addict fills up a lot of his or her time with addiction. Instead of focusing all this time on a harmful substance, a sport can help fill up that time in a more healthy way.
3. Relationships
When a person plays a sport that involves teamwork, this can help build strong relationships with teammates. This in turn can give a person a strong support system. When a person has a strong support system, he or she is less likely to fall back into the harmful pattern of substance abuse. The friendships formed from using sports as a form of drug or alcohol rehabilitation can help an addict maintain sobriety.
4. Self-Esteem
Drug and alcohol can completely ruin a person’s self esteem, and playing sports is a self esteem builder. When harmful drugs and alcohol are replaced by playing a sport, an addict can become more confident. This in turn can help stop an addict from going back to these harmful substances. If you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, playing a sport can help give you the self esteem you need to become a stronger person. When you are a stronger person, the lure of drugs or alcohol will not seem so powerful anymore.
5. Sobriety
Unlike drugs and alcohol, playing a sport can help make you healthier. While drug and alcohol abuse can contribute negatively to your health, playing a sport can help your body becoming healthy. Plus, the feel good hormones released by playing a sport will give you a health high that drugs and alcohol cannot.
These are the five ways that sports can help provide the potentially life saving rehabilitation you or a loved one needs from drugs or alcohol. Once an addict replaces drugs or alcohol with sports, he or she will almost instantly begin to see just how much better life can be when it is a life without harmful intoxicating substances. This is why playing a sport can be a great way to kick a potentially life threatening drug or alcohol addiction.
Author Pam Johnson is an addiction counselor who teaches her patients to occupy their time and minds with more productive activities. She obtained her degree from one of the Top 10 Best Online Rehab Counseling Degree Programs.