5 Steps To A Great Safety Plan For You

Recovery from addictions can be challenging. The number of individuals who suffer from relapse during their recovery can be quite high. Thus, having a recovery plan to overcome such uncertainties becomes crucial.

Safety planning entails thinking about strategies to stay safe while also reducing the chance of future harm. It may entail preparing for a potential catastrophe, weighing your options, and deciding on your next course of action. Finding a path to keeping yourself safe can be a significant step towards rehabilitation, but these plans & activities shouldn't put you in a problematic situation.

Creating these safety plans serves as a blueprint for recovery, and once an individual develops determination for their recovery, the progress begins to happen.

How to Create a Safety Plan

We're happy that you are determined and willing to take action to overcome your addiction. Let's collaborate to create and document a strategy that will assist you and help you prepare for difficult times if you encounter them. Here are the steps that you can follow to create your personalized plan:

• Recognize the triggers and reasons

• Identify your actions

• Develop a strategy to handle situations

• Implementation of the plan

• Review and tracking

#1. Recognize the Triggers and Reasons:

To overcome any difficult situation, it becomes necessary to identify the symptoms and the root causes. Following a similar rule during the recovery period can help you to overcome these situations. Here is the list of questions that you can ask yourself to find the root causes of your addiction:

• What are the reasons behind your addiction?

• What triggers your addiction?

• When do you feel cravings?

• What are the warning signs that you have identified?

• How is it affecting your life, career, and relationships?

• What are the benefits of overcoming addictions completely?

Identifying the core reasons behind addiction and recognizing how it affects individuals can give them a more significant reason to stay away from them. Hence, doing this exercise will serve as the foundation for your safety plan.

#2. Identify Your Actions:

After you have identified the reasons behind your addiction, it's important to find out what actions can be removed or added to your routine to help you get out of this situation. We recommend individuals have a list containing all the things they have to include in their routine. If you are looking for more help on this, please go through the following lists:

• Actions that you'll regularly take to stay sober

• Actions that you'll take to keep drugs away from your life

• Actions that you'll take while you feel cravings

• Actions that you'll take to feel happier and peaceful (going to positive places, meditation, etc.)

• People you will talk to if you feel demotivated

Such lists give extreme clarity about the actions that an individual can take even when they are facing worst-case scenarios.

#3. Develop a Strategy to Handle Situations:

Developing the right strategy is an extension to identifying the actions, as all your efforts need to be streamlined to bring you positive results. Thus, you can develop strategies about:

• How will you manage your time effectively?

• How will you keep track of the progress that you make?

• How will you ensure that you don't fall back into addiction?

• How will you deal with anger, anxiety, and depression during the recovery?

Ask yourself these questions, and you'll be able to develop an excellent blueprint for yourself. 

#4. Implement the Plan:

Now when you are ready with your blueprint, it's essential to put this plan into implementation. For this, ensure that your blueprint is in a place where it is clearly visible to you. When you see it, you'll feel motivated to complete these goals and follow the course of action that you have decided for yourself.

While you have started implementing the plan, staying in touch with a specialized doctor and taking their feedback regularly will help you move in the right direction. Additionally, making someone (your family members or colleagues) accountable will give you extra support. 

#5. Review and Tracking:

During the implementation process, you'll come across days when you'll not be able to put your safety plan into action. Sometimes, you lose motivation as well. To eliminate the chances of getting derailed from your track, you need to have a system in place to track your progress and keep a check on deviations that might be happening.

Multiple wellbeing applications are available for free and can be used for tracking purposes. If you feel any symptoms of relapse during the entire safety plan, reach out to the doctors for help.

Safety Plans Aren’t An Option In Recovery

Backups must be there in such a delicate situation, such as when a person is recovering. Safety plans are not an option: they are one of the most necessary elements in the entire recovery process.

These safety plans help an individual reach the root cause of their problems and solve them by framing and executing the strategies. Along with the implementation of the safety plan, it becomes crucial for an individual to take assistance from certified medical staff who have expertise in the field in case of any such needs.

The Forge Recovery Center ensures the wellbeing and care of individuals suffering from addictions or mental health disorders with our certified team of experts. If you or someone you love are suffering from such conditions, we can help you out. Please call today to learn more about the benefits of a safety plan during recovery.

Written by

Brian Moore

Content Writer

Reviewed by

Jeremy Arzt

Chief Clinical Officer

May 5, 2022