Sobriety Strategies: 13 Tips for Staying Sober

Sober living

Sobriety Strategies: 13 Tips for Staying Sober

They can help motivate a person to remain sober to reach the next milestone. Developing a structured routine can help a person stick to their sobriety goals, make healthy decisions, and reduce the likelihood of triggers and relapse. Establishing a routine with regular sleep and support group attendance can reduce stress and help you stay sober. Triggers for using drugs and alcohol typically are people, places, and things that remind you of your addictive behavior or encourage the use of substances you’re avoiding. A person who is getting sober may be getting sober from one substance or all substances.

1. Drug addiction specialists will always try to instill your recovery process with optimism and hope.
2. Now, before you enter drug and alcohol treatment, you worry about what rehab will be like.
3. The best way forward for your recovery from alcohol or substance use is to incorporate a wide variety of strategies that will help foster success.
4. Sobriety, or being sober, can be defined as the state of not being intoxicated.

Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Get Sober

However, it’s important to remember that sobriety is not something to be afraid of. Sobriety is an opportunity to improve your life in many different ways. Change can be scary, but it can also be gratifying. If you’re scared of becoming sober because you’re afraid of change, it’s important to remember that change is a necessary part of recovery.

What Being Sober Really Feels Like

Leon Garber is a licensed mental health counselor practicing in Brooklyn, NY. He specializes in treating obsessive compulsive disorder, perfectionism, and existential issues, including the more philosophical question of how to cultivate a meaningful life. Many of our patients believe they come to therapy to feel better, but, in reality, they enter treatment because feeling anything is painful.

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One can protect oneself from his feelings when he resolves to intellectualize them, telling you all about their causes and how to manage them. One may project their feelings, noting how another may be upset, but not able to say the way they are upset themselves. One might avoid people who arouse intense feelings, and give themselves excuses to do so. And one could deny their feelings, having a sense of numbness filling the void meant for their grief.

The Mindset Shift That Helped Me Get (And Stay) Sober For Good

I recharge when I’m by myself, and I deplete when I’m with others—especially big groups. So if all of your friends drink alongside you, then there’s no issue, right? Well, there’s a concept in psychology known as “confirmation bias,” and it means that we often look for evidence to support something that we already believe to be true.

You might be a little bored at first, but with time, you’ll discover new and more fulfilling things to do with your time. In my mind, sobriety meant Friday nights alone on my couch, watching Netflix and hiding from the rest of the world who was definitely out drinking. If you’ve spent the last umpteen years being THAT girl or guy, partying hard, struggling through the days hungover, how long does weed stay in your system and doing it all again – sobriety means an entirely new identity. It sounds like a weird thing to be afraid of, but it’s very real. Don’t let difficult decisions and conversations with loved ones be the excuse you use to keep drinking alcohol. If all of your friends abuse alcohol and/or your spouse abuses alcohol, it makes a lot of sense to fear what will happen next.

Drunk me didn’t have to worry if I was alone at a party because drunk me didn’t abide such things. Drunk me didn’t worry if she belonged, or said the right thing, or had to have small talk because drunk me just handled that. That being said, you might not be at a place where you want people to know you’re not drinking, and that’s OK. You can provide an excuse, like that you’re on antibiotics, or you aren’t feeling great or want to feel fresh for something you have going on the next day.

I don’t believe you really feel that way because otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. You know, deep down, that you can and should have a better life. The more you scratch it, the worse it’s going to get. Leave it alone, give it time, and it will go away on its own.

I’d bet nine out of 10 of us won’t even answer, and we’ll just laugh because it’s such a ridiculous question. Sobriety doesn’t necessarily turn you into Liz Lemon, but it can give you the clarity to understand that you’ve been Liz Lemon your whole life. This is an opportunity to assert for your needs, and therefore assert your worth.

This can help you feel more grounded and less overwhelmed by fears and cravings. A therapist specializing in addiction recovery can offer personalized advice and coping strategies. Participating in regular sessions can help you maintain focus on recovery and address any emerging issues before they become significant obstacles. Read books, listen to podcasts, and follow blogs that focus on recovery and sober living. This knowledge of benefits and challenges can empower you and reduce anxiety and alleviating fear by framing sobriety as a positive lifestyle change.

When we aren’t sober, we can use that as an excuse to avoid those problems. Coping mechanisms are tough—they work temporarily, and allow us to avoid and put things aside for the time being. We use alcohol to cover up our pain and our problems.

The flipside of the fear of failure is the fear of success. Most people dont consciously self-sabotage, but they have a deeply held belief that they dont deserve to succeed and, in so believing, never really put forth their best effort. Feeling doomed from the start, many allow self-doubt and fears of what others think to keep them from trying. There are people for which sobriety is a deal-breaker. This might seem like a terrible thing; this is not a terrible thing.

Once a person breaks their addiction, they’re faced with the fear that they could slip up at any time. It feels especially challenging in the beginning (the first year or so), but even five or ten years down the road, cravings and triggers may still arise. So how do you deal with this issue of depression/anxiety issues and addiction. First you need to acetaminophen and alcohol seek out individuals who are willing to stand by your side. These must be individuals who cannot be easily manipulated into allowing you to give into your urges and your cravings. When my daughter died from Suicide in 2018, I had to rely on a lot of individual that I could trust to be there for me and to not leave me to my own desires and devices.

You may be able to fix some of what’s lost and damaged. Staying sober requires a person to analyze the reasons why they were using the substance, identify their mdma abuse: the withdrawal and detox timeline personal triggers for relapse, and avoid falling into a pattern of use again. You may again seek out the people and situations that support your alcohol use.

There are a lot of times that genetics play a factor in depression. There have been times when an individual becomes depressed and falls into an addictive state that they have seen the traits before. Individuals who have addictive characteristics will at times have someone in their family that has suffered from the same addictive characteristics. Most people will need ongoing support groups for some time after detox.

In others, it is the natural human instinct to worry about the unknown. Getting support doesn’t have to mean going to rehab, although that is an option. Support can also look like joining in-person and online support groups. One 2020 study found potential benefits of combining in-person and online support methods. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism.

This can include moving in a new social circle, taking up new activities and leading a healthier lifestyle. Maybe you’re afraid you won’t be able to make new friends. If you gained many friendships as a result of getting high or drunk with others, you may worry that you won’t be able to form close bonds with others as a sober person. Thankfully, things don’t usually turn out that way.

People who wish to stop using alcohol attend anonymous meetings where they provide support and fellowship to each other. AA currently offers meetings all over the United States and in many countries around the world. Maintaining a sober state can be difficult for many people who have previously abused substances for a number of reasons. Relapse, or the return to substance use following a period of abstinence, is common—an estimated 60% of people who receive substance abuse treatment relapse within a year. My biggest fears in life include being in large groups of strange people, standing at parties by myself, and really just people in general.

If you are trying to maintain a sober lifestyle, those feelings can become toxic and contribute to relapse if you don’t deal with them properly. Regularly remind yourself of the positive changes that sobriety has brought to your life. Whether it’s improved health, better relationships, or greater productivity, focusing on these benefits can motivate you to maintain your sober lifestyle.