We’ve all seen the Internet memes, refrigerator magnets, and greeting cards about women and wine. While some may be funny, they hide a dangerous problem. Some women use wine, other alcohol, or drugs to cope with the stress of divorce. How stressful is divorce? According to the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory, divorce is the second most stressful event a person can experience, second only to the death of a spouse.
Sadly, we’ve all known people who use alcohol and drugs to deal with their problems. Not to get all preachy here, but drinking large amounts of alcohol rarely solves problems. It frequently creates them.
Heavy drinking or drug use can trigger a woman’s depression or anxiety, or it could make such conditions worse. Biologically, this makes sense. Drugs and alcohol affect the brain. So do conditions such as anxiety or depression. A depressed person who binges on alcohol is introducing another substance that depresses the brain—alcohol—into his or her system.
Xanax addiction help can address both drug addiction and conditions like anxiety and depression. This care, known as dual diagnosis care, addresses both problems to help ensure that one condition won’t trigger the other.
Such treatment can teach patients ways to cope without using alcohol or drugs. There are a number of things women can do to cope with divorce and other sources of stress in their lives. Some of these things include:
1. Breaking a sweat. Some people overeat or stop exercising during their divorces or other stressful times. They say they want to comfort themselves with food, or that they don’t have time to exercise. But physical activity doesn’t have to include participating in a formal exercise routine or going to the gym.
It’s easier to include physical fitness into our lives by doing everyday things. One option is running around with the kids in your life. Even kids immersed in electronic devices seem to like the occasional game of tag or race down the street. Or just walking with kids gives all of you an opportunity to connect with each other.
Walking in general is a good form of exercise. At work, you can walk up and down stairs and take brief walks during meals or breaks. These walks can also give you brief breaks from your work. They can also allow you to return refreshed with renewed focus. Since exercise helps relieve all kinds of stress, it often plays a large part in treatment during Xanax addiction help.
2. Hanging out with friends. If you want to exercise to relieve your stress, consider exercising with some friends. This group activity could provide all sorts of physical and social benefits. As an added bonus, group fitness activities might not even seem like exercise.
The stress of a divorce or an addiction can make us want to want to isolate ourselves, according to professionals who provide Xanax addiction help. This isolation might not be the best thing for us. Studies have shown that spending time with our friends can help us cope. We can use our time with friends to discuss our stress and other problems with them. They can use this time to discuss their own stress and problems with you.
Unfortunately, sometimes divorce has an impact on our social lives. During a divorce, friends might decide to side with one spouse over the other. This can be painful, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of a person’s social life. People in this situation can turn to other friends or make new ones. There are organizations specifically for divorced people. There are also other organizations, sports leagues, classes, and other activities. These activities allow people to have fun and meet new people.
3. Writing it all out. Divorce can produce all sorts of difficult and complex feelings. To help sort these emotions, consider writing in a journal. Writing in a journal, also known as journaling, can help us process our emotions. Journaling is also useful at other times, such as during recovery from addictions. Professional who provide Xanax addiction help often encourage their patients to keep journals.
Putting your emotions on paper can help you organize your thoughts about divorce and other issues. It can help you determine if there are emotional themes in your life. For example, you can see if you become angry if your ex-spouse does or says certain things.
If you realize that your ex-spouse does in fact make you angry, you can consult your journal to see how you reacted to this anger. If you think you reacted well, you can remember what you did in that situation. You can recall these reactions to use for future situations. If you think you acted poorly, you can try to develop ways to handle the situation better. Journaling, in short, helps us keep a record of our feelings that can be useful in a number of ways.
4. Reaching out to others. Reading our journals can help us examine our feelings about divorce and other issues in our lives. If we need further help with our feelings, we might want to consider seeking help.
This help can involve seeking professional help. We might want to visit therapists for one-on-one sessions or group therapy sessions. This therapy can also help us during Xanax addiction help if we’ve had problems with drugs and alcohol abuse as well as with stress. There are also sobriety groups that hold meetings to help people who have suffered from substance abuse. There are even Internet forums where people can discuss their problems anonymously.
These options show that divorce is painful, yet common. There’s a good chance that other people have experienced similar issues. Connecting with these people might help you with your own divorce.
5. Pampering yourself. The stress of a divorce might also lead us to disconnect with ourselves. Stress could lead us to ignore our health and happiness. That’s why pampering ourselves during this time could help.
Pampering yourself doesn’t mean you have to spend the weekend staying at a fancy spa. It can be as simple as sleeping a little extra on a day off from work. It could involve clearing time in your schedule to exercise (see Tip 1). Taking care of yourself is especially important during stressful times to prevent psychological burnout and physical illness.
Effectively dealing with stress can make a huge difference in our lives. After all, if we use drugs and alcohol to cope with this stress, there’s a good chance that we’ll only increase our stress. While Xanax addiction help can help treat such abuse, isn’t it better to find ways to cope that don’t involve such substances in the first place? That way, we’ll be better equipped physically and emotionally to handle anything divorce throws our way.
Bio: Pam Zuber writes about health, wellness, and recovery for various sites.
