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How To Support Someone In Recovery: 6 Big Ways To Help

How to Stay Sober When Others Are Drinking

See my post on using habit stacks to develop healthy habits to learn more. Meditation is great for people who have just quit drinking. Doing those three things consistently every day has worked wonders for my mental health, blood sugar, and waistline. Personal growth through education or career development can significantly support long-term sobriety. It builds self-esteem, provides purpose, and creates new opportunities.

  • Having peer support as part of your support network is helpful because it connects you with people going through the same journey.
  • One day, being right having dinner with his family and stuff.
  • So, I was working as a Counselor, as a Case Manager at a Treatment Center here in Canada after I got things figured out.
  • This can range from engaging in physical activities, such as jogging or swimming, to intellectual stimulants like reading or solving puzzles.
  • Returning to a regular environment and spending time with friends who drink is one of the challenges you might face.
  • You’ll help out your friends by relieving them of planning duties, and you can ensure the destination is somewhere you feel comfortable.

Avoid Old Haunts

Get free support today from Sober Sidekick. If you’re sober, you’ve already found strategies to avoid drinking; the key is to keep up with what’s worked and consider additional ways to stay focused on your goal. But first, let’s clarify what sobriety actually means.

Learn Stress Management Techniques

Organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous are other ways to build a support network. You can try different meetings for the different groups to find one that’s right for you. I don’t have a mantra or visualization that will get you there any faster. There’s no special breathing exercise that will make cravings disappear altogether. One of the best things you can do for your sobriety is to get to bed at a decent hour and wake up at the same time every day (yes, even on the weekends). I have neither the time nor the desire to cultivate several deep relationships.

How to Stay Sober When Others Are Drinking

Seek Alcohol-Free Activities

And also, for me, I mean, I was one of those girls who like blacked out grayed out a lot. So, I’m always like, Oh, it was so much fun. To be fair, I don’t remember a decent amount of it. And so, you have this own perception, because you’re in this bubble of what it looked like and what it seemed like and it’s hard to see that clearly.

How to Stay Sober When Others Are Drinking

It can include a medically supervised detox, various forms of treatment including therapy and 12-step programs, and calling upon family, friends, and professionals for additional support. Early sobriety may come with feelings of fatigue and the stress of dealing with challenges (people, places, and things that stimulate the urge to use). It’s impossible to know how you’ll react and how your life will change when getting and staying sober.

Can socializing without alcohol lead to stronger friendships?

How to Stay Sober When Others Are Drinking

From building a strong support network to giving back to the recovery community, we’ll explore practical steps you can take today. If these emotions become excessive, they can hold you back from recovery. If you are trying to maintain a sober lifestyle, those feelings can become toxic and contribute to relapse if you don’t deal with them properly.

  • You know, what’s so funny is some people are like, Oh my god, I can’t imagine, you know, 30 days not drinking two months not drinking.
  • You can also dedicate your time to online communities.
  • Post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) involves withdrawal symptoms that persist past the detox period.
  • But I’ll burn this entire thing down in a very short order.
  • Being able to feel is a tremendous gift, one that we have the luxury of exploring.

The challenge now is to explore and develop some new routines together that you can enjoy and that do not include drinking. For some couples this may mean meeting at the gym, finding a scenic place to talk and walk together, or preparing dinner together. It may take a while to establish new routines, but in the end, you will find them more pleasurable than drinking. Of course, the first change to make if you are serious about a sober lifestyle is to eliminate all wine, spirits, beer, from your home.

How to socialize without alcohol: 12 tips for a sober social life

And I was like, this is just, we got to get to the internet with this stuff. But at that point, you know, when I reflect back, it was scary to do that. But it was, for some reason, that day, it was scary to stay the same. It was just scarier to just kind of like, it almost brought me back to the quitting. It was really scary to walk away from it. But like, it was really being sober around drinkers scary to stay in the same place.

How to Stay Sober When Others Are Drinking

Often times, when we start to feel the pull of liquor, calling us to a relapse, it’s because we start thinking of the “good” times (which were bad times but with rose-tinted, tunnel vision). Instead, be present, look at the things around you and identify only facts. Say them out loud, what you’re wearing, where you’re sitting, what year it is, what city you live in, that the light is on, that the walls are blue, etc. Doing this can help stop rapid thought and bring you back to the present. Consider inpatient or outpatient therapy options if you’re struggling emotionally with guilt or shame. It could be the missing link to staying sober.