Staying Well after Drug Rehab Part 2

This is the second part in a series of articles on how to stay well after drug or alcohol rehab.  This article concerns the miraculous benefits of moderate excercise as a tool to stay well and strong after a rehab program.

It is well known that excercise has many benefits to general health and well-being.   Toning up the muscles by jogging,  stretching,  bouncing on a rebounder,  swimming,  hiking,  walking,  is a great way to start the day.  It strengthens the whole body,  and leaves you with an increased capacity for doing work.  It also can help provide you with an increased tolerance for  normal ordinary stress, which is sort of like having extra insurance for staying well as opposed to getting too rattled by the little things that can open the door to  relapse.     

When should you exercise? Apart from the morning jog or walk,  why not try  taking an exercise break during the day,  or even after work  to help shake off the stress that may have accumulated during your day to day activities.

There are hormone-like chemicals that a body produces during exercise, called “ENDORPHINS”.   Endorphins act like natural pain killers/mood lifters when released.   So during exercise,  one will sometimes feel a natural high. That is a sign that the body is healthy and responding to the increased oxygen intake,  and increased circulation through the blood vessels as a result of the exercise.   If you have ever experienced a “runners high”,  you will already know what this feels like.  It is a great way to naturally  promote very  positive feelings,  and even a mild euphoria can result.   But it is a natural feeling,  and will not cause negative side effects like artificial substances do. 

One slight word of caution:  because endorphins do act as natural pain killers,  be sure not to overdo the exercise.  If you have ever had the experience of having injured a shoulder or knee joint for instance, and then you continued to exercise,  did you ever have the pain disappear as you continued to exercise?   That is because the Endorphin levels in your body rose as you continued to exercise,  and numbed the pain.   You will want to be aware of this phenomenon so that you can properly gauge how long or how hard to exercise.  You don’t want to overdo it  to the point where you have  aggravated an injury that should have been allowed to heal before any very strenuous exercise. 

For more helpful information on how to stay well after drug rehab,  or how you can help yourself or a loved one to stay well after rehab,   call any of our helpful counselors at the addicted.org website.