Social anxiety and alcohol addiction often go hand in hand. While many social situations involve alcohol, you should be concerned about addiction if you find yourself engaging in behaviors such as drinking to prime yourself before you leave the house. Unfortunately, your social anxiety can actually interfere with your ability to get treatment if you fear having to open up to a roomful of strangers or get anxious at the thought of being alone with a therapist. When you know that you need to get sober, try using these tips to feel more comfortable about going to an alcohol rehab program.
Choose Dual Diagnosis Treatment
Quitting drinking isn't enough to help you stay sober. Instead, you must also address the underlying reasons for your drinking habits. In a dual diagnosis treatment program, you can learn how to manage your social anxiety so that your next big event does not cause you to revert back to your old patterns. The strategies you learn in rehab for managing social anxiety also help you to open up in your therapy sessions.
Find Someone You Can Trust
The right counselor or sober buddy makes all the difference in the world for helping you to feel comfortable enough to talk about the things that drive your addiction. Whether you are in a residential or outpatient treatment program, try to find someone that you feel like you can trust during your group meetings. Then, sit next to them or make eye contact as you talk so that you feel more like you are having a one-on-one conversation.
Plan What You Want to Discuss
For many people with social anxiety, coming up with the right things to say is difficult. You may also forget things that you want to talk about if you experience a bout of anxiety. Take a few minutes before your treatment sessions to think of points that you'd like to discuss. You can even write these down and bring them to the meeting so that you don't forget important concerns.
Challenge Yourself to Take Risks
Alcohol rehab is the one place where you should always feel safe. After all, everyone there understands what it is like to deal with addiction. Be willing to take risks such as sharing about a moment in your life that triggered a craving. With each risk that you take, you will find acceptance and support from the other people in your group that helps you to feel more comfortable opening up.
Your social anxiety and addiction can feed on each other to the point that you may be too afraid to seek help. When this happens, reach out to a rehab program that understands the connection between social anxiety and addiction so that you benefit from the support of others.
Share8 January 2019
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