Sobriety is boring. Sobriety is hard. Sobriety isn’t worth it. These are just a few of the statements commonly made to ridicule people who have gone through the tremendous effort to resist all temptation and pledge a vow to sobriety – with or without addiction.
Yet sobriety is more than just the absence of addiction. Sobriety is the presence of clarity – it does not represent an absence of anything, past the technical definition of being sober and clean. Sobriety means seeing life in its true colors, and in broad daylight, with none of the tint or taint that alcohol or drugs bring to the table.
But that alone is not why sobriety is great. What makes sobriety great is what all that clarity affords you. It makes way for you to see and understand things you might never have seen or understood without being sober.
A Clear Mind In Sobriety
The first and clearest benefit to sobriety is that you get a clear head. Some people seem to erroneously think that clarity is a bad thing. It is neither good nor bad, inherently – instead, it’s true. It gives you the chance to see things for what they are and make an informed decision – to see through to the bones of your own situation, and take the steps to change it, rather than ignoring your problems, or burying them under distractions.
More bluntly, addiction gives you the state of mind you need to truly explore yourself. Consider your thoughts and actions. Find a way to make peace with yourself. Think back to the mistakes you’ve made, and find ways to reflect on them, and be mindful of your actions in the future. To have a clear mind is a great strength – but it’s not an immediate change. It takes time – even after you’re sober, you’ll be emotionally clouded, struggling with old buried feelings and powerful emotions like anger and shame.
Facing that is difficult, and it is why many people relapse. Overcoming the internal conflict while coping with the outside world can be too much stress for one person, which is why continuing treatment after rehab in places like a sober living facility can help many who still struggle emotionally after going sober.
Time For Other Passions
Addiction robs us of so much time. For one, many addictions can damage a person’s health, shaving years off their life-expectancy and dramatically raising the risk for major heart issues, strokes and more. Yet it also takes time in a more direct and literal sense – it takes time to think about drugs, get drugs, get high, recover, and repeat the cycle. You lose time, and as an addiction progresses, more and more of your time is lost. Time you used to spend attending to your studies or working or pursuing your hobbies gradually goes towards getting high or figuring out how to get high.
Sobriety gives you the chance to take all that wasted time and make a change – using it for the better. It gives you time to get back to work, to make new friendships, and to pursue new passions.
Real Relationships
Much like time, relationships are important to people. Although we can survive alone for a time, we don’t do very well in isolation and struggle immensely with loneliness, even if only emotionally. Addiction and drug use in general might gain you superficial friendships, but it is hard to trust an addict, even as a fellow addict, because the addiction is steering the person, not them.
Sobriety gives you a shot at real friendship, opening up a whole world of communication and honesty, allowing you to create a new tight social circle to hang around with, while restoring old relationships, friendships, and family ties.
Through sobriety, you have the chance to connect with people and be a person again – someone who can be there for others and be a contributing part of a community.
Dependability And Honesty
Being honest and dependable is not a guarantee – it is something you have to work for, and for some people, it is much harder than others. On one hand, it’s quite simple. Do as you say you will do, and be honest about your feelings, intentions, and actions. But it takes strong character to stand by one’s words.
Character, however, isn’t an inborn trait. It’s trained – and overcoming an addiction shows incredible character. By staying true to your sobriety and your promise to abstinence, you can prove yourself to be dependable and honest – as long as you work through your programs and get help when you feel you need it.
There is no such thing as a smooth path to recovery – every journey after addiction is one paved with a very bumpy road, and you will need all the help you can get if you want to stick to that road.
Financial Stability
Being addicted to drugs costs an immense amount of money. Some people spend far more than others, but the general rule is that no matter what your income is, you will spend a significant percentage of it on getting high as the addiction progresses.
The simple fact that an addiction will constantly push itself to grow larger and larger means that no matter how financially stable you are, drug abuse can be catastrophic for your future – and it too often is.
Sobriety eliminates this issue by saving you a theoretical fortune. It is not necessarily easy to find work after addiction, but plenty of programs exist to help sober people find steadily paying work. After treatment, every moment spent not looking for or buying drugs is not just money saved, but time saved – and that time can be put towards making more money.
Actual Happiness
Sobriety does not guarantee happiness – there is no such thing as guaranteed happiness. Happiness is a state of mind – but it cannot really be achieved just chemically. Where a high will give you temporary happiness and leave you feeling worse than before, true happiness can be a memory that will bring you comfort for the rest of your life.
It’s times when you live in the moment and realize how blissful you feel and know that it’s one of those moments you can always hold onto and recall when you need it the most.
Without sobriety, those moments are gone forever. But by staying sober, you’re saying yes not just to uncertainty, but to moments of true happiness. You’re saying yes to life how it really is, with all its beauty and its problems. And that is the true greatness behind staying sober.