Being sober has its benefits. For one, you remember what’s going on around you the next day. Secondly, being sober means you can think clearly and make decisions after careful deliberation – which, often, can save your life or someone else’s. And third, being sober gives you a chance at a much better life, with a fulfilling purpose, a loving family, and friends who care about you.
But beyond all that, being sober is the right choice for your health. Not only does addiction drastically increase your risk of death due to the chance of overdosing or dying in an accident, but prolonged drug use takes its toll on your body, brain, and mind. Recovering from an addiction is a long and tough road and recovering physically is equally tough.
Here’s how addiction affects the body – and why sobriety can get your health back on track.
How Drugs Eat at the Brain
The brain is the first organ drugs attack, binding to receptors in your brain cells to elicit certain emotional responses. Over time, as an addiction progresses, and people drive up their drug intake, most forms of drug use begin to cause accumulative brain damage – on top of changing the way you think, drugs can affect cognition and memory, making you prone to risk-taking and bad decision-making.
The damage is largely reversible, but it takes a lot of time. Aside from the brain, drugs also affect the body.
Your Body and Drug Use
They say the dose makes the poison, yet most addictive drugs are harmful at nearly any dosage. Nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes, is toxic – however, most cigarettes don’t have enough nicotine to cause nicotine poisoning. Instead, cigarettes harm the body through burnt tobacco, which causes a buildup of carcinogenic tar in the lungs and airways.
Cocaine, while relatively harmless in its plant form, can cause major havoc in the body as a powdered extract, damaging the heart and raising the risk of a stroke. Alcohol is poisonous as well, causing liver cirrhosis in the event of excessive drinking, and building up damage in the heart.
The list goes on – drugs from heroin to methamphetamine and benzodiazepines can all cause organ damage, taking months and years to fully heal and reverse. By quitting, you’re already one step closer to helping your body heal – simply taking a long break from drug use can give your body the time and resources it needs to heal. However, there’s a lot more you can do to speed up the process. For example, sleep.
Your Sleep Will Improve
People in general tend to neglect their sleep. As a culture, we value hard work – and that often means putting your sleep on the line to bring results. But cutting down on sleep to bring more hours to the job won’t do you much good – and when you’re struggling with addiction, losing sleep is often a part of your daily life.
Sleep is much more important than most realize – ideally, the average adult human should sleep roughly 6-8 hours every single day. While we used to sleep in phases, it’s healthier to enjoy a single long REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Sleep makes up as much as a third of a person’s day.
When you’re sober, you have a chance to catch up on some sleep and schedule your life in such a way that you get as much of it as you need. Good sleep means better digestion, better complexion, better thinking, and a healthier mood. Bad sleep or insomnia can drastically affect your cognitive skills, negatively affect your mood, and harm your body. Choose sobriety, and choose good sleep.
Regaining Control Over Your Weight
Gaining or losing weight is not necessarily a bad thing – depending on the context and the rate at which your weight is changing. If your BMI rates you as obese, but you feel comfortable and fit, have a healthy bodyfat percentage, and rate as healthy in your physical tests, then there’s nothing to worry about. Gaining ten pounds or losing ten pounds is never the end of the world, either. But if you gain and lose ten pounds over the course of just a few days, something might be very wrong.
Addiction can often cause severe weight loss or weight gain, coupled with malnutrition. Often when quitting, people who were on drugs like cocaine or meth will find themselves putting on a significant amount of weight while in recovery. This can be good, especially if you were underweighted previously, but if you find yourself replacing drugs with food then you may have another problem on your hands in the form of stress eating.
On the other Hand, drugs like alcohol often put on extra weight due to empty calories converting into fat. However, despite gaining weight, many alcoholics do not get enough nutrients to keep themselves healthy.
While in recovery, it is important to look in the mirror and consider how you might want to change, if you want to change at all. Weight is only one aspect of maintaining a healthy body – weight gain and weight loss are a part of the recovery process, and it may take a few months for your weight to normalize once you’re sober. After that, it’s on you to decide how you feel about your body.
Healthier Body, Healthier Mind
Physical health and mental health are intrinsically linked. If you feel terrible, chances are that you will neglect your physical health. Likewise, as your physical health deteriorates, pain and sickness can lead to feelings of depression.
People tend to focus on one and forget the other but staying healthy involves balancing both. When you become sober this is especially important, as your goal is not only to stay sober, but to live a lifestyle that lets you enjoy your sobriety. While many people enjoy eating or extreme sports, eating excessively or wrecking your body will drastically decrease your quality of life, leading to decades of pain and medication. By keeping your mind and your body healthy, you get to spend time and money doing the things you enjoy in moderation, rather than paying a hefty toll for overindulgences.
Coming off an addiction, you’re sure to understand the consequences of overindulgence – don’t make similar mistakes with something other than drugs or alcohol. Sobriety can open your life up to endless possibilities – both positive and negative. It’s on you to make the right choices, and they often do not come easy.