How to Stay Sober: 10 Tips to Help You

The cravings your trigger brings will weaken with time, and as you continue your journey to sobriety, you’ll evolve to a point where a trigger does not affect you. Be kind to yourself – Being on the road to recovery after addiction, while an amazing step forward, may seem overwhelming at times. Don’t expect everything to fall into place instantly. Focus on the now, and surround yourself with loving people and solid support in order to move forward. Financial troubles and problems finding and keeping employment are major triggers for relapse5—but it is possible to take baby steps and get your finances in order.

SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. A concept we can adopt from our sobriety here is to try to stay focused on what you are gaining right now, instead of what’s missing. Look at this time at home as a gift and use it to do something you’ve been meaning to do for a while, if there were just fewer distractions in your way. Maybe that’s reading more, watching a documentary, taking a digital course, getting into photography, taking up knitting, or exploring other things that interest you. We talk about self-care a lot in the sober community.

Schedule Time, Not To-Dos

Recovery can become much easier when you live an organized lifestyle. You can start by setting up daily and weekly routines and making sure you follow them. In addition, you can set goals for yourself that could be daily or future goals. Sticking to routines and using them to help you achieve goals can help to distract you from alcohol as well as give new motivation to stay away from it. Knowing and recognizing relapse warning signs when they show up will help you make healthy choices that will not lead to drugs. If you slip and use drugs or alcohol, it’s important not to let a singular act derail your journey to recovery.

• Maintenance medications like acamprosate and naltrexone can help you get through the hardest parts of staying sober.
• First, you must forgive yourself for what you did in your substance abuse days.

Getting sober is a sprint, staying sober is like running a marathon without a finish line. On the plus side, you have people cheering you on and giving you support at various checkpoints. On the negative side, you will have long stretches of isolation, sweating bullets, seeing spots, and feeling like your legs are going to give out as you hit the runner’s wall. This is when sobriety requires effort, discipline and endurance or you will suffer a relapse. Creating structure in your daily life helps you stay on your plan daily.

How to Stay Sober by Loving Yourself

And if you find that anything is disturbing your peace or increasing your level of anxiety, keep in mind that the Mute button isn’t limited to your remote control. Don’t be afraid to mute or unfollow accounts that you’ve realized are out of alignment with what you stand for. Remember, you can get sober and you can stay clean, even if you happen to fall off the path. Eventually, a person often recognizes that they are losing control of their sobriety, which only drives them toward substance use. Some individuals start to exhibit compulsive behaviors, performing the same actions over and over, seemingly without reason.

Impulsive behaviors may also develop, especially in moments of high stress. The amount of time it takes to achieve abstinence can depend on the individual, says Tetrault. This is a short-term approach that allows you to safely detoxify a substance https://ecosoberhouse.com/ out of your body. According to Jeanette Tetrault, MD, an addiction medicine specialist at Yale Medicine, the terms “sobering up” or “getting sober” are stigmatizing. It’s easy to show self-kindness when everything’s going great.

Sober Strategies Playbook: Tips for Staying Sober

This does not mean, however, that you have to be perpetually busy. It means having balance in one’s life, for rest, productive work, and play. It also helps to know that a trigger is a temporary experience that will pass if you wait it out.

In addition, it’s created an intimate closeness with God. I feel good as I’m writing in it and afterward. Prayer https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/13-actionable-tips-to-stay-sober-at-different-times/ journaling is a healing practice and a spiritual release. So it was an adventure setting up my first website.

Avoid Old Habits and Toxic Relationships

My schedule crumbles, and I find myself in a horrible state of mind — the exact same state of mind that makes staying sober almost impossible. You start staying sober, and staying sober starts to feel okay. Learning about how to stay sober can be different for everyone.

• It’s also helpful to change your environment—for instance, avoid going to bars.
• Some people decide they aren’t going to drink or use drugs, and they never do so again.
• Social media use can cause depression, anxiety, and in some cases, suicide.
• On the negative side, you will have long stretches of isolation, sweating bullets, seeing spots, and feeling like your legs are going to give out as you hit the runner’s wall.
• Do volunteer work, or get involved in a recovery group.

In this article, we’ll dive into some tips that can round out your recovery toolkit and help you stay sober. Some individuals can do this on their own with community or peer support; however, others will require the help of providers through medically-supervised detoxification. This can be done in outpatient or inpatient settings.