Sober Life Archives - Page 5 of 8

Sticking To Your Sobriety For A New Year’s Resolution

Posted on January 4, 2018February 12, 2018 by JohnAdmin

No one ever said sobriety would be easy – but to many, the idea of long-term sobriety can seem almost unattainable. And with the way addiction works, overcoming that point of view and working towards a new and hopeful future is difficult, but that’s what January is for. A new year, and the beginning of something better – for everyone who struggled with life in 2017, 2018 can be the one chance you need to make things better. Sticking to your sobriety might be the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do – and there is no straightforward rulebook for keeping clean. Everybody has their own methods, their own tricks. But with a little bit of help, some simple advice, and the right treatment, you’ll be able to walk your own journey to a better you.

Here’s what you must do to stick your new year’s resolution, and live a sober life this 2018.

Get Support For Sobriety

One thing must be said: this is your journey. It’s on you to get better, to follow the advice and the steps of others, and to find your own way to manage the disease and enjoy life again. Nothing will change that – and no one can live your life for you.

But there is a massive difference between giving up and putting it all in the hands of someone else, and asking for support from those you trust the most. Getting support is vital for anyone’s sobriety, even if you never enroll in a formal treatment program. You may not need the advice of a professional, or any medication. You may not even need to attend any meetings or go to a special residential treatment center to get clean.

But you will need the help of others to keep you on the right track, push you to stay strong when you begin to falter, and consistently remind you of what you must do to achieve your life-time goals. Support doesn’t mean surrounding yourself with people who support your habits and keep you from growing. It means surrounding yourself with the people who hold you accountable to your actions, inspire you to do better, and remind you that it’s okay to falter sometimes, if you never give up.

Finding people like that can be difficult, but thankfully, through local treatment centers, group therapy and the Internet, it’s easier than ever to make new friends and create the circle of support you might need to stay up on your feet.

Remember that, usually, it isn’t just about you. If your support group includes others going through a similar but different journey of self-discovery and addiction, then remind yourself that you have a duty to play as part of their support group, too. That role of being a giving and useful part of someone’s life can help you, by giving you something else to stay sober for.

Avoid The Past

Addiction is more than just an internal struggle – for many, it’s a fight against the temptations around them, as well. Many people have trouble getting out of their addiction because life continuously pulls them back into it. While protective environments help stifle this issue by completely removing people from the temptations present in their usual life, there is no getting around the fact that, at some point, a patient must come back home.

It’s important to start the new year right by cutting yourself off from the parts of your past that most strongly remind of your worst days. Sometimes, this might mean moving to a different neighborhood, or leaving old acquaintances behind. If you want to keep your early recovery from being jeopardized, taking steps to provide yourself with some fresh scenery can go a long way.

Beyond that, avoid thinking too much about the past. That does not mean you are supposed to run away from bad experiences or traumatic memories. Instead, it’s important not to dwell on them. Addiction feeds on some of our most negative emotions, including shame and fear. Part of denying the disease is learning to part from those emotions, and getting past the past.

Find Meaningful Hobbies

Beating addiction is not just about replacing the ritual, or finding things to keep yourself busy. It’s ultimately about finding other things to care about – things that genuinely give you pleasure and make you happy. For some, it’s exercise and competition. For others, it’s the pursuit of various creative arts. Others like to mix and match various hobbies, trying new things out rather than devoting themselves to a single discipline.

The trick to finding out what exactly works for you is trying it all out. Visit local clubs, watch YouTube tutorials, try things at home, buy a few beginner kits and see where your exploration takes you. You might discover a deep passion for woodworking, or learn to enjoy diving.

Set Short-Term Goals

One way to easily lose yourself in recovery is losing track of time, and routine. A lot of people who slip towards a relapse first notice themselves slipping and quitting certain habits or rules. If you have a strict schedule you first started upholding when you decided to quit and go straight, pick that schedule back up every time you feel yourself slipping.

If you feel your motivation to staying sober fading, it’s time to revive your enthusiasm by focusing on something else entirely. Set a short-time goal or challenge, or, if it’s a drastic lack of enthusiasm, pick up a new hobby.

Go On A Journey This Year

Let 2018 be the year to take your first fundamental steps towards truly achieving long-term sobriety, by dedicating yourself to a new you. Set goals for yourself, work hard to achieve them, and focus on the present instead of looking back to your past mistakes and stumbles.

After the remorse of addiction kicks in, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the consequences of some of the things you might have done or said. Forgiving yourself and getting to the point where you truly believe you can still turn things around and be someone good is important, and very difficult. But if you manage to reach that point in your recovery, then you’ll be well on your way towards a life of lasting sobriety.

Preventing Relapse In The New Year

Posted on December 28, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Relapsing during addiction recovery is when the urge to use overwhelms you to the point where you fail to resist it, and you find yourself using again. This is more than just a simple error or mistake – to most people, it’s an act of self-betrayal that can take a lot of emotional strength to overcome. Not only do you have to come to terms with the fact that you’ve gone against something very important to yourself, but you must find a way to forgive yourself to move forward and do your best in preventing relapse before it happens.

Addiction recovery is very much about learning to come to terms with your past, and promise to yourself that you will do better – not just for others, or out of some misguided sense of punishment, but because that is the best thing for yourself and you want the best for yourself.

Many people ignore this crucial fact, covering up the self-love and gratitude aspects of addiction with distractions, pity or self-doubt. It doesn’t matter if you consider it spiritual or psychological – if you cannot come to terms with the things you have done and agree to give yourself another chance, then you won’t have the confidence in yourself to stick to recovery, and sobriety. This faith in your own abilities is tested even further after a relapse, and it is after these relapses that it is hardest to find hope for yourself.

That’s why we need the support and affirmation of others to help build us up to the point where we feel we are strong enough to turn our backs on addiction once and for all and help in preventing relapse. But you can prevent yourself from having to go through such a journey of relapse, through one straightforward way: Improving yourself.

By improving yourself and molding yourself in recovery to be someone you can be proud of, you can help in preventing relapse by by fighting both the psychology of addiction, and how it feeds on our negativity, and the neurological effects that addiction has on the brain, by relearning how to use your reward system effectively and working on the parts of your brain that may have been damaged from drug use. Here are a few example ways in which to improve your chances of preventing a relapse in the new year, and over years to come:

Preventing Relapse: Take Up Painting Or Music

The effects of art therapy on addiction have been noted, but you don’t need to seek approval from a therapist or enter a controlled environment to begin learning an art form, and then experimenting with it. Art, however, takes time and patience, and a lot of focus. This can be especially frustrating to someone in early recovery, who may be struggling with the neurological consequences of addiction, and their effects on both a person’s behavior and cognitive ability.

Thus, art can be an effective way to train these faculties, and learn the reward behind spending countless hours being bad at something, only to get better, and receive the recognition you deserve for it, while discovering a creative outlet that allows you to convey emotion in times when words just will not do – an issue that many have over the course of their recovery journey.

Get Into Hiking

Nature has a profound effect on people who struggle with addiction – in fact, being one with nature has a profound effect on people in general. It is good for your health, both physical and mental, and in turn can be an effective way to help rehabilitate someone, and help in preventing relapse, after an addiction by taking them outside of the repetitive stimuli of the city environment or indoor world, and out into a world of fresh smells, incredible sights, and real living things.

The exact reason for why we feel good when we’re out in forests and parks isn’t entirely understood, but it is well understood that it is important for us to be outside occasionally. Hiking not only provides you with an opportunity to take in a breath of fresh air and take in all of nature’s sights, but it also provides you with the opportunity to get some exercise, without having to necessarily to do in the sterile environment of a commercial gym, or at home, where the motivation to exercise can be difficult to come by.

Exercise is something every human being needs to live a healthy life and keep a healthy body, both of which can make a difference when going through early recovery. But that does not mean you have to suffer to stay fit. If other forms of exercise don’t sit well with you, then hiking may be an enjoyable way to burn calories, stay strong, and help in preventing relapse all at once.

Try Out A Sport

For some, the one thing lacking when it comes to exercise is proper incentive. While good health and physical fitness are rewards in and of themselves, they don’t necessarily inspire a direct sense of accomplishment. Rather, they take years to materialize and maintain, and the effects of exercise are rarely seen in the mirror at a drastic pace. Change is constant, and it’s difficult to track your own.

A sport, on the other hand, is numerical and tangible. There is a sense of competition, either with yourself or with others. The incentives are clear, and depend entirely on your own effort and skill. The rules are set, fair, and reliable. All a sport needs is your input.

It’s a fantastic way to improve yourself – and a wonderful way to help in preventing relapse, by focusing your attention on something entirely different and entirely motivating. You don’t have to go pro – even something as simple as timing and tracking your jogging to improve distance and speed can become competitive, and give you a more engaging way to train, rather than following a program you find boring.

Learn To Cook

While it is a basic life skill and many people can cook, most people cannot cook well. Many people simply throw ingredients together to create a passable meal and satiate their hunger, not out of love for food or appreciation for the harmony between different combinations. If you’ve ever felt like cooking is something you could get into but never had the push to really try to, now may be the perfect opportunity for you to get started.

It has never been as easy to learn how to be a great cook than today. However, it still isn’t glamourous. Get ready for spending many hours doing tedious kitchen tasks, prepping ingredients, practicing your chopping, and learning to use all the utensils and tools of the kitchen.

It may take time, there will be failures and frustrations, but there are few things people respect as much as good cooking. Everyone needs to eat, and if you happen to be extremely good at making delicious things, you’ll have no trouble making plenty of new friends. Speaking of which:

Make New Friends

Drug addiction recovery can be quite lonely at times. You may have had to leave some friends behind when making the change over to sobriety, and even if you did reconnect with others, relating to addiction together – or to similar hardships – can be hard. Tackling these issues on your own is even harder.

With some friends, that can all become much easier. Among the many other ways of preventing relapse in the new year, take it upon yourself to meet new people, and connect with them on things that truly matter to you.

Making A Resolution To Kick Addiction

Posted on December 21, 2017 by JohnAdmin

While we’re still in the holiday season, the new year is drawing near – and to many, this is a reason to celebrate a meaningful ending to the year. With a new year come new opportunities, new possibilities, and a fresh start to something possibly much better after you kick addiction.

Of course, with these hopes come expectations, and with them, the distant yet noticeable anxiety of failure. Failure to be successful – especially at something life-changing – is a profound fear for many when stepping into the new year, and it’s an attitude like this that hinders progress and contributes to missteps.

Avoiding these feelings isn’t as easy as simply identifying them – you need to make peace with them, and find a way to breathe both optimism and a better chance into your new year – and carry that all way to next December, and far beyond.

It won’t be easy, but if approached the right way, you can take this New Year’s Day to be the occasion you need to finally kick addiction for good, and turn your back to an old chapter in your life, one full of learning experiences and painful moments.

Why Make A New Year’s Resolution To Kick Addiction?

People make new year’s resolutions for the simple reason that a new year is a clear-cut end and beginning – a fold in a person’s life, the time when it’s easiest to leg go of something old and dedicate yourself to something new.

It’s not just about looking forward to a new future, though. The New Year’s celebration is about the past, the present, and the future. All moments in time are considered when the new year draws close, and each for vastly distinct reasons.

First, the past. The end of a year is a time for reflection, when we can look back and think on what we did and what we didn’t do, and consider carefully what should be done going forward. It’s important to look to the past for guidance – but not to regret, or daydream of different circumstances and outcomes. What has happened, has happened – but you can change the outcomes you dislike by taking the initiative in the future.

It’s at this point that the new year offers us an opportunity to think about what we should do, and how we might do it. It’s a time for new plans, for new commitments and for new resolutions. A time when we can set ourselves up to the task of becoming better and kick addiction.

But to do so, we must time it just right. And that’s why we focus so much on the present during the new year, counting every second, living and breathing in that moment, savoring the countdown to a new year, and the beginning of a journey to a new you.

Don’t Announce It To Everyone

Announcing your goals to everyone can rob you of the satisfaction of having completed them. While it’s not nearly the same thing in any reasonable sense, it feels similar – to gain the approval of having decided to start bettering yourself, and then receiving recognition and support for that decision, can rob you of the feeling of achievement you would gain if you first worked a substantial amount towards achieving your goal to kick addiction before coming out with it.

When your goal is to kick addiction, you might not want to announce it anyways. However, that does not mean you should simply keep it a secret. Make it known to your family and close friends that you’re going to kick addiction, and that you will need their support – this means not taking drugs/drinking around you, and it’ll mean helping you stay away from a potential relapse.

If you’re supplementing your recovery with other goals – fitness goals, for example, can be extremely conducive to recovery, and can promote a great general feeling of happiness, self-appreciation and confidence – then try and work your way to creating a solid habit before you tell others about what you have been doing. The same goes for learning new languages, or playing an instrument. The rewarding feeling of recognition for a modicum of skill will help you keep going – while revealing the goal too early will rob you.

Create Short-Term Goals

A recovery journey lasts decades, and takes you to emotional places you may never have been before. Therefore, people often congratulate themselves with commemorative objects or events, to help them stay positive and reward them for, say, an extra month without booze or alcohol.

Create short-term goals for yourself that are like this, like giving up smoking or drinking for a month, or dealing with a conflict without resorting to a drug, or even finding an alternative way to work off stress.

Again, the same applies for any other commitments you may have made to improve your life this upcoming new year – by setting smaller goals for yourself, the overall goal will not seem so tremendously far away, and you’ll be able to reward yourself with a feeling of satisfaction every time you draw a little closer to your bigger, more challenging goal posts.

Be Prepared For A Long Journey Ahead

While a new year’s resolution is often a commitment to make a substantial change, some people take the opportunity to challenge themselves to do something different this year – be it learn an instrument, a new language, or a new craft.

But recovery is more than a habit you pick up for a few months, or a few years. It’ll be something you take with you for the rest of your life – and, if everything goes well, it’ll be a journey you can look back on with serene content, knowing you did enough in life to feel like you have truly lived.

With drugs and addiction, that feeling is unattainable. Drugs are the anti-thesis to life – not only do they kill in some of the most savage ways, but they also steal you away from reality, and put you in a fake world, filling you to the brim with fake feelings, leaving you defenseless for the crash of real emotion as it hits you during sobriety.

Dealing with those waves, learning to ride them, and savoring every significant moment by being fully aware of it and how real it is – that is life. And if you don’t get sober soon, that life can pass you by very quickly.

Top 6 Reasons to Go Sober This Holiday Season

Posted on December 11, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Regardless of how you’re spending your holiday season, it can generally be agreed upon that there’s something special to this time of year. Traditions are, in some aspect, important to us – and if it’s a particularly positive and festive tradition, then it’s important that we carry it on, and use it to enrich the childhoods of our children, and take the time to think back on the rest of the year. But there’s more to the holiday season than traditions – this is a time to look back on the year and reflect. Getting yourself to go sober is much the same – you face the decisions of the past, and strive to make a major change. And just as the new year is an opportunity for new commitments, sobriety is the opportunity to live life again, without the brain fog of addiction.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa; regardless of what celebration you’re preparing for, now is the right time to stick to your sobriety and see it through, all the way into spring and through the rest of the new year.

Why? Well, we put together a brief list of six simple and inarguable reasons why you should go sober for this holiday season.

There’s Holiday Cheer To Be Had

The holidays are a time for family to come together, have a wonderful time and a delicious meal, bond over old memories, or make new ones. With families often being split apart across the country due to generations moving from the countryside to the city, and from city to city, the holidays are a good opportunity to get together and be one big family – or, simply spend the days with your favorite few people.

For kids, the holidays are often about candy and presents. Every kid hopes for something in their stocking or under the Christmas tree. But that doesn’t mean the spirit of the holidays is in shiny red boxes and pretty department store ribbons. It’s about being with others.

You can’t enjoy your time with others when you’re still caught up in addiction. Not only because it’s hard to be around someone who isn’t getting clean, but because without a clear head and sober thinking, you’re bound to miss the holidays – and everything that comes with them.

Make Sobriety Your Present to Yourself

Making yourself go sober doesn’t have to be a chore. It’s not a punishment for sin. It’s not meant to make you feel shame or guilt for your past choices.

It’s hard to see it as anything other than miserable when the withdrawal kicks in, but sobriety is life. Living without drugs or alcohol opens your eyes to what life can really be, and lets you experience those moments that make living worth it. Being with family and spending time with the people you love is a crucial part of the holiday season – thus, there’s no better time to get help and commit to sobriety, than right now.

Create a Pledge For The New Year

With the holidays comes the inevitable conclusion to another year – and the beginning of the next. And with every New Year’s Day come countless new commitments to self-improvement.

However, many people don’t follow through with these commitments. Whether it’s the pressure, the gratification of announcing your goal, or just an inability to make new habits stick for a wide variety of several possible reasons and circumstances, the truth is that it’s not easy to make a substantial change in life – and sobriety is no different.

But the hardest part of getting yourself to go sober in the long-term is being sober for long enough that it begins to stick. This initial period of sobriety can be even harsher than the rest of the journey. Using the motivation of the new year to get a kickstart into your sober journey can help mitigate this.

You’ll Have Money To Spend (Elsewhere)

People sometimes underestimate just how much addiction costs. We’re not talking about the cost of treatment or insurance, or the cost of losing a shot to a better career – buying and using drugs, including cigarettes and alcohol, will put a major dent into anyone’s weekly budget and can lead people into a downward spiral of financial difficulty and debt.

But by saving all that money spent on addiction, you can instead use it to get better or get yourself something nice for Christmas.

It’s not just a thing for the holidays, either. You’ll experience steady savings throughout the entirety of your sobriety – which, ideally, will be the rest of your life. That money can instead go towards actual self-improvement, coping mechanisms, and better sources of entertainment.

You’ll Actually Remember Christmas Eve On Christmas Morning

Blacking out from drug use isn’t entirely uncommon – and with alcohol, it’s even normal to forget what you were doing the night or day before. If you’re struggling with alcoholism and have been struggling with it for a few years, then you’ll know that Christmas is one of those days when you’re bound to get very drunk.

But if you go sober, then you’ll turn a clouded and unknown night into a memorable part of your holiday season – one you’ll remember for a while to come, even.

Of course, just because you can remember something doesn’t make it good. The key to go sober and stay that way, not just in the long-term, but throughout the holidays, is by spending time with people you like. If your family is what drove you to use drugs to escape them, then make your own family. Spend the holidays with friends.

Don’t let your addiction ruin the holidays – and reclaim them from the bad memories (or lack thereof) you might have had in the past.

The Holidays Will Become Something Good Again After You Go Sober

When you’re struggling with addiction, you need good things in life. They help remind you why you should go sober, and why life is worth living with a clear mind and an open perspective.

Starting your sober journey over the holidays gives you a head start on the new year – treat this as an adventure to be had, an odyssey that’ll take you years and even decades.

Sobriety doesn’t end, and in a way, neither does recovery. That doesn’t mean the struggle never ends. In time, things get easier – and you’ll learn to wonder and love and live life again.

Addiction Affects More Than Just You

Posted on November 30, 2017November 30, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Addiction is one of the toughest conditions to get through. It’s not just that you’re fighting your body – in many cases, you’re fighting against your own will. Being an addict isn’t easy, and it’s never a choice. It’s the absence of choice, and addiction affects more than just you.

What makes it even harder is that it isn’t an isolated condition. Sometimes, addicts find solace in the idea that, by giving up, they’re not really hurting anyone except themselves. After all, if addiction really is a choice, then they have the right to choose to live their lives this way.

While that’s true, addiction affects far more people than just yourself. If you’re struggling with addiction, then never forget that it’s not just about getting better for your own sake.

Addiction Affects Your Dependents

Most adults are responsible, not because of some intrinsic personal quality, but because responsibility is something most of us are given at a certain point in our lives when others begin to rely on us and our ability to provide for them. If you have a pet, a child, a disabled family member or elderly relative, then you are responsible for them, either single-handedly or alongside others.

Your dependents pay the highest price when you begin to lose the ability to care for them. Addiction doesn’t just hurt you and take away from your ability to live in this scenario – addiction affects them directly, and puts them in harms way. No child wants to grow up alongside someone struggling with addiction – and your beloved pet will lose the person they fell in love with in the first place.

Addiction Affects Your Marriage

This doesn’t just go for couples who tied the knot – if you made a long-term commitment to someone else, then addiction affects the relationship and will often lead to a growing fragility and possible break in that commitment. Relationships are demanding and the way addiction affects them is never positively.

To be with someone, you must take into consideration that they’re different from you, and you two must work together to overcome those differences, reach compromises, and live together in a way that keeps you both happy and satisfied. That means making sacrifices to certain personal goals, and it can oftentimes mean having to make selfless decisions.

That’s hard to do when addiction drives you to fulfill your inner need for the next high, more than anything else. When you stop putting your significant other first, and addiction affects the relationship by taking over, then the relationship can quickly devolve into an utter mess.

Addiction Affects Your Family

Beyond your immediate partner, your relationships with the rest of the family can also be greatly influenced and your addiction affects everyone in it. In fact, it’s not uncommon for familial ties to sour when addiction begins to take over.

Think about it – your loved ones are losing someone they’ve cared for, for many years. Beyond that, struggling with an addiction often means becoming more distant from others as you find yourself caught in a rollercoaster of emotions. If you struggle to stay sober and find yourself frequently caught in a cycle of withdrawal and relapse, then the emotional toll that has on you is reflected on those around you, as most people become prone to acting out under these circumstances.

Sure, not everyone has a great relationship with their family to begin with. In fact, in some cases, your old family might even be the root cause behind many personal issues, anxieties and difficulties. In that case, the last thing you want is to seek closure through them. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t stand to lose something.

Addiction Affects Your Friends

Friends are like a second family – or, in other words, the family we choose. The bonds we create with our friends can last entire lifetimes, and in some cases, they can be stronger than the bonds we share with our family. That makes it that much more painful when an addiction affects you and causes you to damage and risk those bonds.

Good friends care about you. Good friends will vehemently defend you. And they’ll fight you day and night if they think you’re doing something that’ll end up hurting you. A real friend will have your best interests at heart – and they’ll often not be able to stomach seeing you slip further and further into addiction.

Even if addiction affects your relationship, if you prove to them that you’re willing to fight that addiction – even just a little bit – then they’ll help you with everything they have to offer. And that kind of friendship can save your life, more than once.

Addiction Affects Your Career

We all need to work – not just to feed ourselves, but to stay sane. If we’re not doing something meaningful or useful with our lives, we’ll struggle to find a reason to live. In some cases, your career might even be the centerpiece to that struggle, if you find yourself working in a position you loathe. But if addiction affects your work and takes a hold of you because of some other tragedy, then you might find yourself fall behind in your work and lose your shot at a career entirely.

To some, that can be the greatest loss of all – seeing your life’s work fade away over your addiction. The only way to avoid that is to overcome your addiction as quickly as possible – and use your career as a tool to do so.

To some, that might in and of itself be enough motivation to get through the entire journey. For others, that might be a little intimidating – along with everything else in this list. But it’s not all dread and gloom. Just like how addiction affects others around you, it’s in their best interest to help you get better – and if you’re open to their help, and never give up, you’ll always have a shot at complete recovery. If you find you need a little extra push to stay sober, consider checking out a Houston men’s sober living or women’s recovery home to meet like minded individuals and for a supportive group of friends who also value sobriety.

6 Ways to Help Your Recovery in Houston

Posted on November 27, 2017 by JohnAdmin

If you’re in the city of Houston, then you’ll know that there’s really no shortage of things to do and places to check out without sipping so much as a drop of alcohol. However, if you’re coming from a life of reckless drinking or regular drug use, then there’s probably a lot you haven’t had a look at in a while – or ever. Houston is full of opportunities of sober adventures to help your recovery in Houston if you know where to look.

And it’s important to have some adventure, especially during recovery in Houston. People make the mistake of thinking that sober living is just boring, bland and meaningless. In contrast, it’s the absolute opposite. It’s about experiencing the radiance of life without any of the fog brought about by a high. This isn’t about sitting around in a circle crocheting (although there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you’re into) – it’s about making new discoveries, meeting new people and finding new hobbies, all while being 100% yourself during your recovery in Houston.

If you’re struggling to find new things to do during your recovery in Houston, here are 6 ideas.

Find Friends In Houston

Houston is a big place, with a population of over 2 million – making it the most populous city in the state of Texas, and one of the best places in Texas for meeting new people and discovering new sights during your recovery in Houston. There are a couple ways to go about that.

The most obvious in our day and age is through the Internet. Like any major city, Houston went digital a few years ago – you can get around, find restaurants and seek out events all through the palm of your hand. You can also find new friends through online meetup apps and websites, which let you sort through potential group meetups by interest, and check into local groups on social media websites to ask around for hangout spots and make new buddies.

Or you can go the old-fashioned route, and just go straight to where the people are. Head out into a city district of your choosing, and talk to people at local sports clubs, theaters, or community centers. Either way, finding people to enjoy sober life with can be helpful for recovery in Houston.

Hang Out In Cafes

If you loved bar-hopping, drinking in the atmosphere of loud clubs and quiet lounges, then opt for the sober alternative – cafes. They come in all shapes and sizes, and many go through great lengths to set themselves apart from the regular old Starbucks down the block. If you love coffee, tea, or baked goods, make it your new mission to discover your favorite little caffeinated book reading spot in the city while enjoying recovery in Houston.

Check Into A Gym

Exercise does an excellent job at working off stress and keeping addiction at bay, while helping your recovery in Houston from the effects of addiction – and it also provides you with a great excuse to make new friends, set personal goals, and make massive physical changes to your body and the way you feel.

You don’t have to go to a strength gym or pop into Planet Fitness and spend an hour on the treadmill – you can join other clubs or classes geared towards a fitness choice of your own, from yoga to football to karate, and everything in between.

Volunteer At A Houston Charity

There are several charities and volunteer spots in Houston who regularly look for people available to help, whether that means helping cook at soup kitchens or distributing blankets among the poor.

Not only do you make a difference in someone’s day, but you get to feel like you’re doing a little to give back to the city, and give back to others.

The Houston region is still dealing with the aftermath of flooding from earlier this year in some places – donating to local organizations and lending a hand at reconstruction efforts can also go a long way to making a change.

Check Out A Sobriety Community For Your Recovery In Houston

There are plenty of Houston sober living and sobriety communities looking for people who struggle to stay sober, and need the help with recovery in Houston. This is especially true for people straight out of rehab, who often struggle to deal with all the new challenges of sober living, and need a little help getting back into the rhythm of living life without drugs or alcohol.

Go On A Houston Adventure

Houston and the surrounding area has plenty of adventurous outdoor activities for groups, families and friends. If you’re not the outdoorsy type, then this obviously isn’t an option for you – but if you don’t mind doing a little exploring and like to take the time now and again to rediscover nature, then you might be surprised what Houston has to offer in that regard.

There are plenty of things to do and places to see that aren’t mentioned here at all. It’s all up to you to head out there and give life a chance – and see what comes around for you to be discovered during your recovery in Houston. If you’re the more cautious type, there are plenty of online resources that are perfect not just for tourists, but for long-time Houstonians looking for a new adventure or a potential treat.

You really don’t need alcohol to have a good time. In fact, in all of these cases, alcohol will just make your experience much worse.

Tips And Tricks To Maintain Sobriety

Posted on November 20, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Therapy and consistency are important to maintain sobriety – but having a handy list of personal tips and tricks can really help you flesh out your sober life and ensure that you have ways to deal with anything life throws at you. That means building habits that keep you healthy, sane, and happy.

Binging on TV shows, spending half a day playing video games or locking yourself in your room to go through an entire book series isn’t a constructive way to cut addiction from your life. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop consuming entertainment, or stop indulging in distractions from time to time.

Distractions have their place in recovery. But most of your habits should help you shape a better life. The best coping mechanisms for any of life troubles are the ones that help make you a stronger, better person – they help you build your focus, improve a talent, or make you happy.

Taking an hour or two out of your day to live in the pages of a book or play some video games can be an enriching experience and will in fact help you work off some emotional stress. But there’s a line between an effective way to deal with stress, and turning your new coping mechanism into a destructive behavior – which is exactly what addiction is to begin with.

Look for habits that pull you away from your cravings in a healthy manner as you maintain sobriety.

Achieve Accountability And Maintain Sobriety

Being accountable to others is an incredibly powerful motivator in life. People have turned their entire lives around and completely shifted their world views simply because of the birth of their child, or because they’ve fallen in love. Beyond immediate family, we can be accountable towards others who have certain expectations of us, and are supportive of our attempts to be better. Our coaches, mentors and friends, for example.

When you’re having a terrible day and you’re lacking the motivation to go through with your routine, then looking onto others as a source of inspiration is crucial. Through accountability, we remind ourselves that it’s our duty to maintain sobriety, and live up to our goals – no matter how hard things might be. Not out of a sense of compulsion or guilt, but out of a sense that this is important to who we want to be as people.

Be accountable to your friends, your family, and those who believe the most in your ability to achieve your goals – whether they’re in art, fitness, music, or in an industry.

Work Out (Often)

Building up a sweat on a regular basis is more than just a tool for losing weight or building muscle. It can be an indispensable tool for vastly improving your mood, and dealing with stress. If it’s within your ability, then exercise should be a part of your life – regardless of whether you’re struggling with addiction, mental illness, or just the day-to-day difficulties of living. Exercise is a boon to all, and it’s especially useful if you experience frequent depressive and destructive thoughts.

This is because exercise helps people tackle these issues in two major ways: through the release of endorphins, which act as natural anti-depressants and immediately shift your mood, and through the gradual improvement of your overall fitness and appearance, which can have a dramatic effect on your self-esteem and help you stave off irrational, self-deprecative and negative thoughts.

The key to maintaining a proper level of exercise is to do something you enjoy. Don’t force yourself to attend spin classes or go jogging in the early morning if you loathe both activities. Instead, try alternative ways to get your daily sweat on – like calisthenics, CrossFit, or weight lifting. Give everything a trial period – it’s normal for a completely sedentary person to dislike exercising regularly just because of the physical shock of going through a proper workout without prior experience. But if you still hate jogging after a few weeks, then it’s probably not your thing.

Don’t just restrict yourself to fitness. Look at other sports and activities like Latin dancing, martial arts/self-defense classes, basketball, or swimming. Having sometihng like working out to take up your time helps you maintain sobriety in the long run.

Read Up On Addiction & Mental Health

They say knowledge is power – and when it comes to trying to maintain sobriety, you will probably welcome all the help you can get. Addiction is not a completely understood condition – we’re still figuring out how best to help people treat themselves, and both the biology and psychology of addiction is being studied to come up with better treatment, and create a much wider understanding of the disease so that every case can get the help it needs.

That’s why it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science and the psychology on addiction. New drug treatments are constantly in development, alternatives to addictive painkillers are an extremely hot topic, and the scientific community is still working on ways to create treatments that help everybody in all stages of addiction.

Keep A Journal

Finally, a great tip for maintaining your sobriety is by recording your progress. Keep a journal – written, narrated or in video form – and update it regularly, or whenever you feel like you need to get something off your chest. You could publish it in a blog form, use it as reference some day in the future when producing a creative piece of work, or simply keep it close to you and in private, to look back on and see how far you’ve come since.

Recovery is a journey that lasts a lifetime – but that just means living life to the fullest, and doing your best every day to stay away from the darker days as you maintain sobriety.

How to Live a Sober Life in Houston

Posted on November 13, 2017September 28, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Houston can be a beautiful place. Founded in the early 19^th century, it’s the most populous city in the state of Texas, and it has a rich history to show for it. Alongside its Texan heritage, Houston boasts one of the world’s greatest medical and research facilities, and is home to the historic NASA Mission Control Center. Everything this wonderful city has to offer makes sober life in Houston a good time.

But beyond its diverse and thriving streets, Houston is also home to controversy and its fair share of pain. It’s known as a significant area for drugs and human trafficking, due to its economy, population and proximity to major drug exporters. In turn, the addiction treatment community in Houston is hard at work to help the city deal with the effects of drugs, both to individuals and communities to promote recovery and sober life in Houston.

For individuals, getting away from drugs and alcohol can be tough – not just in Houston. The nightlife in any major city is dominated by drinks and cocktails, and Houston is no exception. As beautiful and exciting as it may be, many newcomers to sober life in Houston struggle to find ways to spend time and have fun without getting involved with the temptations of the nightlife.

Thankfully, there’s plenty to do in town while sober. And with a little help, you can rediscover Houston and see it in a whole new light – and learn to truly enjoy and appreciate the perks of living life in sobriety.

Find Things To Do: Sober Life In Houston

Golf, bowling, softball, dancing – there’s no shortage in sober life in Houston activities for residents. Regardless of whether you like sports or love more laid-back activities, there are plenty of events and meetups across the city where alcohol is either a rare sight or completely forbidden.

All you must do is find them. And that’s where the Internet becomes very handy.

The Internet is first and foremost a communications and information tool. Through it, people all over the world can exchange valuable data, or talk endlessly about the mundane. Conspiracy theories, cat videos and political commentary all find their home online, alongside anything else you can imagine, from illegal drugs and passport forgeries to old Michael Jackson music videos.

It’s also an amazing place to meet people and find new activities. Social media like Facebook, and search engines like Google have worked hard to transform our relationship not just with other people, but with technology and the way it integrates into our lives. Convenience is the ultimate selling point of any new tech, and the convenience of discovering every pizza place in a ten-mile radius of your current nightclub has been a game changer for many.

Through Facebook, you can find new local groups, and search by location to find others dedicating themselves to maintaining a sober life in Houston. Websites like Meetup.com make it easier than ever for groups to organize events and recruit new potential members. And through the many countless sobriety blogs, you can find commenters from all backgrounds and walks of life.

It’s not just about finding places with sober people. It’s about finding places where you can have fun. Try and go to a language school for a language you like. Find workshops for things you haven’t tried yet, but are interested in. Take a few woodworking lessons. Go to a self-defense class. Hang out in coffee shops and develop a taste for a good cup of joe, or a perfectly-steeped cup of tea.

Beyond just looking for things to do, finding people to do things with is just as important. Friends matter, not just to pass the time and enjoy life, but as support. It’s hard to appreciate others when you’re struggling with addiction. Not only does addiction take away a lot of depth and perspective from life, but it leads to a feeling of self-loathing and hatred, making it hard to understand why anyone would want to hang out with you, or even like you.

In your sober life in Houston, you can slowly return to that sense of being comfortable in your own skin. And with that comes a newfound appreciation for the people around you.

Explore The City Of Houston

Have you seen all that Houston has to offer? Even if you’ve spent all your life living in Space City, there’s always a little something to see, both new and old. Take your time to work through the many different facets of Houston in your spare time, and you may be surprised at what you’d find.

Ultimately, the city itself isn’t that important. It’s the experiences you come across and the people you meet who become the real treasures of exploration. By being spontaneous and having a look through every little neighborhood for things to do and places to see, you may come across moments in life you would never otherwise have had the chance to experience. That is what sober life in Houston is about: keeping your eyes open to wonderful variety of life, even in your own backyard.

Remember: Having Fun Without Drugs Or Alcohol Can Be Easy

Live life, and discover what you like and don’t like. People are born and wander through life all the way to their graves without experiencing more than the tiniest fraction of what life could have been like.
With drugs, your life is dominated by the cycle. Without drugs, once you’ve made it past the initial hurdles, life can open to you – but that’s all wasted if you don’t take chances and consider that life can be a lot more fun sober than high. Men’s sober living and women’s sober living programs in Houston can help you take that step towards sobriety.

If you or someone you know is struggling with staying sober, contact us today to see how we can help: 877-394-8810

Addiction Trigger: How To Manage Triggers For Addictive Behavior In Recovery

Posted on November 9, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Learning to deal with an addiction trigger is an important part of your recovery. An addiction trigger is just those little cues that exist in life that influence your behavior. For example, you may see an old colleague and feel the urge to go grab a drink like you used to do after work. In some instances, you may even be unaware of your addiction trigger, until you find yourself facing the possibility of a serious relapse. Gaining recognition of your personal triggers along with an understanding of other common ones gives you more control over managing your behavior.

Understanding External Addiction Trigger Potential

An external addiction trigger are influenced by your environment, and there will be times that you have little control over them before they arise. For instance, you may detect a certain smell that triggers a craving as you walk through downtown on your way to work. Yet, being aware that the addiction trigger exists allows you time to plan for how you will handle them in the future.
• Interacting with certain people
• Seeing reminders of past drug abuse
• Enjoying experiences such as concerts
• Visiting favorite places
• Celebrating holidays

Discovering Internal Addiction Trigger Potential

An internal addiction trigger is a thought or emotion that generates a desire to use drugs or alcohol. Usually, this is a negative emotional response, but happiness can also be an addiction trigger if you associate doing drugs with celebrating special moments. As you work on identifying the feelings that accompany your cravings, consider whether these emotions may be a trigger for you.
• Boredom
• Anger
• Self-pity
• Sadness
• Anxiety
• Loneliness
• Excitement
• Exhaustion
• Confidence

Handling Specific Places

During your time in treatment, you likely learned to avoid places such as bars or the neighborhood where you used to get your drugs. However, other places can also trigger cravings that may not be avoidable. For instance, entering a bathroom can cause an addiction trigger if you to want to use drugs, or you may find that staying in a hotel brings up old memories. Knowing that this might happen gives you a way to plan. For instance, you may choose to stay in a different hotel, or redecorate your bathroom so that it looks different.

Coping With Social Triggers

People are often unaware of the effect that they can have on someone who is recovering from drugs or alcohol. In fact, you may even run into people who do not know or understand that you are in recovery. For example, your old college roommate could come to town and arrive bearing a bottle of your favorite drink. While their intentions are well meaning, you will need to be prepared to turn down their offer to relive old times. This is why it is important to surround yourself with other sober-minded people during the early stages of recovery. Leaning on the people in your sober living community make it easier to avoid social situations that trigger cravings.

Dealing With Emotional Stress

Emotions can be a powerful addiction trigger that often leave you feeling powerless when they take over. Yet, you can learn how to deal with emotional stress in positive ways. Engaging in physical activity such as going for a swim helps to melt away anxiety, and you can use relaxation techniques such as meditation and yoga to get yourself in a stronger state of mind. Talking to your sober mentor or therapist also allows you to release pent up emotions before they lead to a major breakdown.

Identifying High Risk Situations

The interesting thing about an addiction trigger is that they vary so much from one individual to another. For instance, your roommate may find that attending a family event is their trigger, while you may know that watching certain movies cause you to crave drugs or alcohol. Learn which situations are high-risk for you so that you can develop strategies to combat your cravings. For instance, knowing that you will be having a drug test after your holiday celebration makes you stay accountable for your sobriety.

Working Through A Triggered Response

Unfortunately, you can’t go through life completely avoiding triggers since even seeing a spoon could cause you to remember your old habits. The good news is that you can learn how to work through a craving that is triggered by something in your environment or an emotional response. Begin by recognizing the addiction trigger for so that you can notice it faster the next time. Then, move on to your action plan, and do whatever helps you avoid falling prey to a craving such as talking to a member of your support team or engaging in a favorite activity.

The best thing about learning how to manage triggers is that each time you overcome a craving makes it easier to do it again. As you continue on your sober journey, keep track of what triggers your cravings so that you become stronger in your commitment to beating your addiction.

Building Self-Confidence Helps Maintain Sobriety

Posted on October 12, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Self-confidence is said to be the key to many things. We’re told repeatedly that you must be self-confident to nail that job interview, be self-confident when asking that cute guy or girl out, be confident in your choices as a consumer and customer, show self-confidence when alone and traveling – the list goes on and on. Self confidence is also important to help recovering addicts maintain sobriety.

It’s solid advice. Self-confidence is encouraging in any situation: if one person is unsure, the other person’s confidence might help them feel more secure. However, when it comes to addiction treatment, self-confidence is about more than just looking sure of yourself. It’s about negotiating with your own mind and battling the effects of addiction with positive stubbornness. Here’s why self-confidence really matters when you’re trying to stay sober – and more importantly, here’s how to cultivate and maintain self-confidence.

Rehab Is The First Step

Sobriety can start off as the beginning of something new and wonderful, or like hell on Earth. Some people feel invigorated, full of a lust for life and ready for everything – others just want to use again as soon as possible. For both, it can be hard to maintain sobriety in the early stages. Emotions ebb and flow, rising and falling like a rollercoaster.

After the initial treatment period – especially after rehab – efforts to maintain sobriety becomes harder and harder. Relapse rates are as high as 60 percent for people in treatment, and overcoming that reality can be very difficult after all the elation of early sobriety that some experience. However, rehab is only the first step. The rest of the journey matters even more. Trying to maintain sobriety is not just about not using – it’s about learning how to enjoy life and live it without drugs. And that’s impossible without some form of confidence.

How Low Self-Esteem Feeds Addiction

Having a low self-esteem feeds the negative thinking that fuels drug use, and keeps an emotional addiction alive and kicking. By calling yourself inadequate, useless and all kinds of derogatory terms, you’re effectively justifying your own drug use, since it’s “the only thing that brings happiness”.

This sort of self-doubt creates a vicious cycle, wherein your negative self-image leads you further down a path of depression and self-destructive behavior, addiction included.

Building Self-Confidence In Sobriety

Self-confidence is troublesomely mistaken for boastfulness by some people, and worse yet, there are those who might mistake overcompensation for “confidence”. The difference between them is honesty. The first step to really being confident is being entirely honest with yourself. You must acknowledge what you can’t do – and, importantly, acknowledge what you can do. Yes, maybe you’re a terrible dancer – but you’re also a pretty good singer. Sure, you might not have the best looks, but maybe people often comment on your hair, or your smile, or the way you dress. Focus on honestly taking stock of yourself and deciding what you like and don’t like.

For anyone struggling with addiction, one of your major personal dislikes is most likely going to be your substance abuse. And that’s a start – but it’s important to go further from there and work to maintain sobriety.

Once you know what you’re working with, set goals. Don’t like yourself physically? Consider exercises to help with that. You don’t have to go to the gym if being in public embarrasses you: start at home, and use online resources to inform yourself. Even someone with “below average” looks will feel far more comfortable in their skin if they can be proud of their strength and fitness. That can go a long way towards helping you really feel better about yourself.

If there’s a hobby you’d like to pursue, then do so – especially if it involves other people. Competitions, cooperation and hobbyist interactions can be a fantastic way to improve, express yourself, and become confident in your growing abilities as an artist, player, athlete or participant of some other kind. No matter what you do: don’t shy away from challenge.

Start small – you don’t have to intimidate yourself with the pressure of changing everything at once. Make changes to yourself in order of magnitude, and you’ll start to feel more confident the more comfortable you feel being yourself.

How To Maintain Sobriety And Overcome Setbacks

Some might say that setbacks are inevitable in recovery. Setbacks do not just refer to relapses, but moments wherein we fail to stick to our personal code. Maybe we catch ourselves thinking about using again. Maybe we’re at the supermarket and find ourselves lingering far too long in the alcohol section. Or maybe we’re throwing furtive looks over to the lotto station, thinking about it.

Indeed, it’s common to see people criticize themselves and berate themselves for not being good enough while they struggle to stay sober. We all make mistakes, but it’s the mistakes we make when trying to stay clean that anger us the most.

A crucial step to successful recovery is learning to overcome those setbacks. That does not just mean stopping setbacks, but it more importantly means having the emotional strength to see past your mistake and look onwards towards a new chance to try again.

It’s especially hard not to dwell on relapses. A relapse can be a devastating moment in a person’s recovery, and it’s sadly quite common – as much as 60 percent of people struggling to maintain sobriety will relapse over the course of their treatment. However, what most people have a challenging time with is understanding that a relapse doesn’t mean a program has failed. Instead, a relapse can mean that you’re going through an unexpectedly tough time now, or it might be the side-effect of meeting someone or remembering something from your past that triggered a powerful craving.

Failure is when you overdose. There really are only two options when struggling with addiction, and those two options are to sober up or not sober up. And if you keep on trying, you will get there, even if it takes the help of a sober living community to get you there.

The reality is that no one wants to stay addicted, and very few people really must deal with the challenges of addiction. In the end it’s a battle between whether you want to use again, or live. If you choose to live, then consider a relapse a sign that you must keep fighting the urges, and dedicate yourself to whatever treatment you have found works best for you. Addiction treatment sadly doesn’t work as quickly as addiction itself – there is a lot of discipline involved, and self-confidence is critical to justifying all the time and effort you spend fighting for your own life.