To anyone with a long history with addiction, the first and most obvious advantage of a sober lifestyle is the fact that sobriety is your norm – and you don’t have to worry about the addiction coming back to haul you through a series of miserable events and regrets. But getting addicted and then committing to sobriety and abstinence from drugs does not mean you’re surrendering your life to a lack of fun for the sake of sanity. Living a sober life means enjoying it and still living a full life.
Instead, sober life can be much more enjoyable and far more exciting than any drug on the planet. One thing it most certainly is, is fulfilling. A good life spent sober is better than any high on the planet, and here are just a few of the things you’re going to love about being sober and embracing your new sober life.
More Time
The first few things you’ll notice when sober is that the day has 24 hours, and you’ll often be surprised by just how much a person can get done in that time frame. With adequate rest and some time devoted to chores and eating, there’s a solid 10-12 hours to spend on work, passions, and yourself. The time you might have previously spent on your addiction can now be turned into time for you to find a way to sustain yourself and your family, as well as put some time towards keeping your body and mind healthy and keeping the house clean.
Sleep can be a major change in a person’s mental health right after weeks, months or years of addiction. It’s not easy to get enough sleep or maintain a healthy sleeping cycle while struggling with drugs. But once you get your sleep in order, your health and concentration will drastically improve – and you’ll find that there’s a lot of time to get things done.
More Friends
One of the bigger changes is the ability to build new relationships, and salvage old ones. Addiction robs you of a lot of self-determination, time, money, and worst of all, it robs you of other people’s trust. Often, an addiction will cost someone not only years off their life, but it can break relationships, even with the people we are closest with. It’s difficult to be accountable and stay true to your word when you’re in the middle of struggling with an addiction – but going sober gives you the chance to regain that trust.
Friendships, family, intimate relationships and romantic interests – if you want to share in the fun of living with others, then you have to trust them, and they have to trust you – and most importantly, you have to trust yourself. Sobriety won’t automatically make you a paragon of integrity, but it’s a prerequisite if you want to start living an honest and fulfilling life.
Better Health
Drug use will take a toll on your body. A few hits won’t do much – but months and years of accumulated use produces signs of wear on the human form. Alcohol easily adds pounds to your frame, putting stress on your heart and liver. Stimulants like cocaine and meth can strain your cardiac muscle, deaden your appetite, and even lead to skin sores and rotting teeth. Nicotine’s primary delivery mechanism, tobacco, is carcinogenic.
Regardless of what your poison is, all drugs contribute to serious brain damage, diminishing your cognitive ability, leading to memory problems, difficulty with problem solving, increased risk-taking, and reckless self-destructive behavior.
It can take up to a few years of healthy eating and sobriety to help your body recover from addiction, but it’s possible – and necessary, if you want a good quality of life.
One reason addiction is difficult to overcome is because prolonged drug use can make it hard for your mind to listen to a voice of reason. And, all this can aggravate other mental health issues.
Sober Life: State of Mind
We’ve mentioned the copious social and physical benefits of staying sober. We’ve mentioned how it will help you maintain a memory, keep your brain and organs healthy, stave off a risk of cancer and heart disease, and even help you improve your physical appearance and physical performance. But perhaps the biggest part of getting sober is the mental battle you have to endure – and the benefits you reap from surviving it.
Regardless of why a person gets addicted to begin with, over the course of an addiction we are bound to experience feelings of guilt, shame, and negativity. Some people develop a serious depression, something they struggle with for years after. Others develop fears and anxieties, insecurities, and emotional pain.
When these feelings start to grow, the urge to drink or use grows stronger. Even if people didn’t start out using their addiction as a way to cope with themselves, most start seeing it as a way to hold off the growing pain and problems.
Once you finally take the first few bold steps towards sobriety and recovery, all those emotions can hit you like a freight train. They tend to accumulate, making this period incredibly difficult and mentally strenuous.
For a time, you’ll feel split moods, remembering your sorrows and celebrating your newfound sobriety. This can be a dangerous and strange time in your life – but with support, proper treatment, and a good guide, you can overcome the frustration and the shame, find a way to forgive yourself, take action however you can to make things right, and eventually come to terms with the old you and the new you, and see a clear path ahead for yourself.
Addiction, in a way, is temporary happiness. Our vices all represent ways to seek a reprieve from greater problems and bigger issues. But by staying sober, you gain the clarity of mind you need to address these problems in your life and find real happiness.
It won’t happen overnight or even over a week – but getting sober and staying on the sober life is the first key step to overcoming every terrible feeling you’ve ever had and clearing your conscience – not for some spiritual or religious purpose, but simply to create a new life for yourself in which you can be truly happy and content without being self-destructive.