Maintaining a recovery journal helps you stay mindful of your emotions, triggers and celebrations during substance abuse recovery. During the initial stages of treatment, you may find it helpful to track how you’re dealing with the symptoms of alcohol detox or to set goals for the future.
The goal of any drugs and alcohol counselling program is to make you more mindful about your addiction. After you leave rehab, you can use your journal as a baseline for tracking your progress and making notes of people and situations that threaten your sobriety.
Questions to Get You Started
Starting an addiction recovery journal can be daunting. Many people have no idea what to write about or get bored reusing the same ideas. HARP is here to help! The team of experts behind our leading recovery coaching program in Melbourne assembled this list of addiction recovery journal prompts to get your brain turning.
- What does your ideal life look like?
- What was a goal you had when you were younger?
- What is a goal you want to accomplish within the next year? Five years? Ten years?
- Who do you admire and why?
- Besides sobriety, what was one of the greatest challenges you had to overcome? How did you do it?
- Who has helped you in your recovery journey? Write a thank you letter to them.
- When was the last time you learned something profound about yourself or the world? What was it?
- What is one thing you’d like to forgive your past self for?
- How are you taking care of yourself during recovery?
- What is one of the best lessons your recovery has taught you?
- What is your ideal vacation? Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you take?
- What have you learned about other people during your recovery?
- What is your favourite thing about your personality?
- Do you remember the first time you felt like or realised you were addicted to XYZ?
- What is something you could achieve that would make you feel proud of yourself?
- What is the best book you have ever read and why?
- How did you deal with stress and worry when you were younger?
- What is your outlook on life now? When you were younger?
- How would you describe your experiences to your children/ nieces and nephews/ grandchildren?
- What benefits have you realised from sharing your experience with others?
How to Write in Your Addiction Recovery Journal
These questions will help you reflect on the skills you learn in drug and alcohol counseling, the symptoms of alcohol detox, and coping mechanisms for challenging situations. Notice that the questions prompt you to reflect on memories before your addiction, your life goals, and the things you are proud of. Your addiction recovery journal should help you recognize which coping mechanisms have worked for you in the past and clarify where you want to be in the future.
To learn more about rehab and recovery coaching at HARP, call us on 1800 954 749.
