The biggest advantage you have in the fight against addiction is in the power of your own will to get better. In the early days, it’s normal to feel almost powerless. The cravings and the temptations will be stronger than ever right after you stop using, and that is why many people seek help with staying sober when starting out.
But as time goes on, once the drug is out of your system and early recovery has begun, your will becomes more instrumental than ever. You must to keep staying sober – everything else comes second.
Of course, your will alone is not enough. Any temptation or memory of the past can trigger a powerful craving, one that can be incredibly hard to resist. Whenever things are not going your way – and as life goes, that can be quite often – the urge to use grows stronger, to forget your troubles and defeat the stress. Some days are worse than others, and at times, it feels like life is taunting you.
But the longer you stay clean, the rarer the bad days get, and the more you feel happy about yourself and your life. To get to that tipping point, however, you may need every ounce of help you can get your hands on. Thankfully, there are more than enough resources out there to get you started and keep you on the right path. Here are a few essentials for getting serious about staying sober.
Find A Hobby While Staying Sober
A big part of successful addiction treatment is finding the ability to enjoy yourself without drugs. Life is meant to be lived, but addiction often robs us of the joy of living. It will not come back easily, but finding a hobby that draws you in can be a great first step in staying sober. For many, it is something related to exercise.
Getting active causes your body to release endorphins, allowing you to feel good without any external substance. What is often referred to as the “runner’s high” is not exclusive to running and applies to a wide variety of sports and activities.
Other sports and hobbies that do not necessarily involve physical prowess can also be a great introduction into sober living. Take chess and reading, for example, or painting. Regardless of your talent, activities like painting and writing allow you to express yourself and your emotions in ways you might not be able to in conversation or everyday living.
Journaling is a common way to relieve stress and tension at the end of the day, and reflect on the day, thus improving mindfulness – an important factor in addiction treatment. It also allows you to hone your focus and keep your cognition sharp – these are both important, because long-term drug use often diminishes your ability to think critically and be focused while staying sober.
Another important part of picking out a hobby is to be social again. Making new friends related either to your sobriety or to a hobby you really enjoy is an important part of staying sober. By building connections and creating casual relationships, we begin to build a life that allows us to be accountable to others as a friend or acquaintance and gives us time to look forward to outside of time spent alone, in the company of your own thoughts and temptations.
That, and the people around you can become major cornerstones in your long-term battle against addiction, by providing vital support while you are staying sober.
Surround Yourself With Support
Addiction is not a disease best fought alone – in fact, it may be impossible to fight addiction alone. People who get sober without treatment do so more often out of their connection with others, rather than their own will. This because addiction often erodes people’s self-esteem and causes you to be more likely to feel shame or fear, rather than be motivated by your odds of success.
But when we see sobriety not only as something that can benefit us, but as a way to fulfill our obligations to others and be someone we can feel good about, it becomes much more powerful.
That is the power behind accountability. By surrounding ourselves with people who care about us, we can be accountable to them in the fight against addiction.
Support is more than just that, of course. By making new friends in circles of sobriety, such as group meetings and sober living communities, you can help motivate others to work on staying sober and be motivated by them and their struggles. Creating a network and relying on a trustworthy social circle can greatly improve your motivation to keep on fighting, day after day.
Get With The Program
Addiction programs exist of reason: many of them work. We have come a long way since the early days of addiction treatment – from medication to help combat some of the most addictive and powerful drugs in the world, to therapeutic treatments that help patients completely change the way they think and act with hard work and dedication, to treatment programs that cater themselves entirely to a client’s circumstances and needs.
If you can afford to take time away from work, or need to be in a safe, temptation-less environment, then facilities such as residential treatment clinics and sober living communities can make a huge impact and set you on your way towards long-term sobriety. For those who cannot afford such a commitment, outpatient programs of all shapes and sizes exist to fit to your schedule.
Get Professional Help
Friends and family are integral to better overall health – having a solid support system and a trustworthy social circle in your life is important regardless of your mental health. But when it comes to addiction, it probably is not enough to only look towards your friends and family. While they are important and will be a cornerstone for your continued sobriety long after initial treatment, a professional therapist, and other experts with an assortment of skills and tools can help you tailor a very specific and highly effective treatment to combat your addiction and equip you with the skills you need to continue fighting addiction long after any program typically ends.
Addiction is not defeated in rehab – but rehab, or other related treatment options such as sober living, can teach you more about yourself and your relationship with drugs. That knowledge will be instrumental to avoiding relapses, dealing with difficult and tense situations, surviving the fallout from broken relationships or other losses and tragedies, and generally learning how to enjoy life after addiction, and continue to avoid falling back into it.