Many people who struggle with substance abuse may lack essential life skills, including social skills, self-management skills, and even education pertaining to drug and alcohol abuse. With the right type of life skill training, you can acquire the education you may have missed earlier in your life and, as a result, be better equipped to:
- Take care of yourself
- Communicate and socialize with others
- Avoid risky behavior
- Reduce dependence and relapse from drugs and alcohol
- Employ coping skills for stress
- Manage finances and other tasks for daily living
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of life skill training and how it can aid your recovery journey.
What is Life Skill Training?
Life skills training refers to formal training that provides skills which is often acquired over the course of younger life but may not have been for several reasons. This can extend to areas such as budgeting, communication, and even taking care of oneself.
A lot of life skills training is substantiated by research and scientific studies, with curriculum employed across schools, educational centers, government agencies, and drug rehab programs.
There are several categories of life skill training curricula that are usually divided into three main areas.
Self-Care
The first area pertains to taking care of yourself, and this includes self-management skills. Self-management skills can include simple tasks like:
- Learning how to budget your expenses and your income
- Personal coping skills to manage stress in a healthy way
- Setting boundaries with others
- Taking care of yourself
- Proper sleep and nutrition
This first area of life skills training can give you an opportunity to reflect on your current behaviors while also reviewing where you want to be in the future. This will help you learn to set important goals for personal progress and track those goals effectively. You might learn what behaviors you use regularly that might be influenced by stress or anxiety and how you can change those negative automatic thoughts or behaviors into something positive.
For many people, this type of life skills training offers a chance to step back and review consequences of each of your potential actions before you make a decision. It also offers a chance to learn how to reduce your personal anxiety or stress through healthy coping mechanisms.
Social Training
The second area relates to social training, providing people with general social skills. This can include things like:
- Learning how to communicate with others
- Overcoming shyness
- Setting boundaries with others
- Understanding and using verbal and non-verbal communication
- Learning how to support others
- Engaging in sober activities with others
The second area of life skills training helps you develop the skills you need to socialize with other people in a healthy capacity. If you have struggled with substance abuse, it may be difficult to socialize without the use of drugs and alcohol. If you struggle with low self-esteem or low confidence, it can be hard to get over social anxiety or to be vulnerable enough to develop a deep relationship with other people, but this type of life skills training can help you with that.
Substance Abuse
The final area of life skills training relates to substance abuse. This area of training can provide education that promotes healthy alternative behaviors to turn to instead of relying on drugs and alcohol as a form of self-medication or escape. This can include:
- Skills needed to resist pressure to return to drugs and alcohol
- The importance of support groups as part of ongoing recovery
- A better understanding of the immediate consequences of substance abuse
- Coping mechanisms that can help you deal with experiences such as depression or anxiety without turning to drugs and alcohol
- Better emotional regulation
- Personal understanding of triggers and coping skills, as well as behavioral changes that can prevent relapse
This third area of life skills training is important in helping you recognize that you have several choices when you are faced with triggers, stress, or trauma and that you don’t have to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. With the right life skills training, you’ll learn healthier coping mechanisms and recognize the importance of making small, positive decisions on a regular basis.
Why Life Skill Training Matters
There are several reasons why it’s important to invest in life skills training. The biggest reason is that these are essential skills that make living much more comfortable and easy. Beyond that, studies have found that life skills training helps promote drug abuse prevention.
At Aligned Living, we specialize in offering comprehensive aftercare rehab programs for those in recovery, particularly life skills coaching that can offer continued support. Our virtual recovery coaching programs are suitable for anyone, no matter where in their recovery they are.
Contact our team today to learn more about our life skills training.