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hey there everybody and welcome back to the addiction to mental
health Disorders Treatment manual I'm your host Dr
Donnelly Snipes this is unit 1 part 18. the action stage of Readiness for change
in the action stage you're leaving on your trip remember in the preparation stage you're packing
for your trip and you're making plans for how you were going to get to your destination in action
you're leaving you're actually walking out the door and getting in the car you are ready willing
and able to make the change so you're motivated to do what you need to do you've decided okay I'm
going to spend my energy on it and you have the tools and resources you need lined up along the
way to make sure that you can accomplish your goal it will be important to maintain your motivation
as you go through the recovery process you know think about a trip especially a long car trip
about two three hours in at least that's for me I start getting really bored and thinking oh my gosh
when will this be over I'm losing my motivation I'm losing my enthusiasm a couple more hours in
I start thinking do I really want to go to this place that bad okay my motivation continues to
wane the same sort of thing happens with change in recovery when you start making these changes
it's hard and sometimes it's uncomfortable and it's going to be important to recognize
that you can continue to move forward toward your recovery toward your rich and meaningful life and
experience pain and experience discomfort it's in going to be important to be aware
of all of the skills and tools and resources you have to help you along the way just like on the
trip when when you're you know putzing along and then you start to have to go to the bathroom you
know where where are the rest stops where is it what where can you stop in order to meet your
needs so you are not overly uncomfortable so you don't turn around and go back home
spend about 50 minutes what are three things you need to do every day in order to maintain
your motivation and it can be helpful to reflect on the problems caused by
your problem whether it's mental health or addiction but it's also important to
reflect on where you're going what are you excited about why is this worth the effort
how will you know if you're slipping back into an earlier stage of Readiness or losing motivation
what does it look like what things do you start doing what things do you start telling yourself
when you start slipping backwards you know it's kind of like that pool analogy I made again
somebody who is really hot at the pool may decide oh I'm going to go get in the water so I can cool
off they get over there and there's lots of kids splashing around and they're like nah
that's more than I was really wanting to deal with and they start making excuses for why they're not
that hot why it's really not something that they want to do right now they start minimizing
denying justifying Etc so what do you do when the going gets tough what do you do that may indicate
that you're losing losing steam so to speak final thoughts on change get to know and trust yourself
you have lived in your body you know what your warning signs are you know
what your motivations are you know what has worked for you in the past that's important
if something has not worked for you in the past and you've tried it a couple of times
then continuing to try to do that is probably not in your best interest so my question is what
are you going to do instead what works better if this doesn't work what works better for you
find three people you can count on to provide honest constructive feedback in
recovery circles we say they won't co-sign on your [ __ ] it's important to have three people
who can see what's going on who can call you out and say it looks like you're starting to
relapse or it looks like you're falling back into Old behaviors only you can verify whether
they're right or not but it's important to have people there who can help sort of uncover those
blind spots before you slip back into your problem without even knowing continue to
explore the pros and cons of the problem and the solution in order to increase your motivation
compare your perception and others perceptions of the problem if other people think it's a
really big deal and you're saying no it's not a big deal at all try to get into their heads
and think why is it that they think this is such a big deal am I what am I missing
change is a gradual process the addiction often helped you survive until you were able
to start getting other tools if you didn't have an addiction and you've just got a mental health
issue that mental health issue was holding you was keeping you from achieving the life you wanted
because you didn't have the skills and tools and it's going to take time to learn those skills
and tools be compassionate with yourself don't expect a hundred percent accuracy on the first day
and finally focus on your strengths not your weaknesses what is it that you've got going
for you who's in your in your corner what things do you know work for you build on
your strengths the more you focus on strengths the fewer weaknesses are going to be evident