Why Living a Sober Lifestyle Isnt Just About Abstaining from Substance Abuse

For many people, it starts out as a social lubricant and then turns into a social crutch. When I was drinking all the time I didn’t want to do anything in the evening that would require me to be sober. I would white knuckle it throughout the day at work and then as soon as I clocked out I started drinking. By putting one foot in front of the other one day at a time, you can slowly learn how to live your life without mind-altering substances.

Sobriety can also help improve your mental health, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety and helping you experience a greater sense of well-being. Living a sober lifestyle can open the door to many things, including improved relationships, better memory and health; more time, money, and energy; and a longer, meaningful life. Without taking the time to consider why you want to pursue sobriety, you may decide not to begin at all.

How Being Sober Can Lead to a More Fulfilling Life

They serve as the roadmap to our future – towards college, a successful career, healthier relationships, physical strength, emotional and spiritual health. Unlike New Year’s resolutions, personal goals are not typically dropped off or left behind. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, also says that even minimal amounts of alcohol of any kind increase a person’s risk for several types of cancer.

Taking the time to identify people and things that matter to you can help you determine why you want to get and remain sober. For example, suppose you’re passionate about your family, friends, faith group or the work you do in school or on the job. Or perhaps, you want to give back or contribute any talents, gifts and abilities you have to your community. In such cases, you may want to get treatment and maintain sobriety because your substances of choice interfere with these relationships and responsibilities.

Find Balance in Your Life

Because of the dangerous side effects of kicking the habit, it is recommended that you do this in a hospital or professional facility where you can be medicated or otherwise treated if necessary. Purpose has a way of allowing individuals to be accountable to themselves and others and responsible for their thoughts and behaviors. It can encourage people to work hard for and pursue success as they define it.

Learning to trust others and ask for help is a critical part of staying clean. If you are withdrawing from opiates you need medical supervision. You may not even be considered for long term treatment until all traces of the substance are gone from your system.

Coming to Terms with What a Sober Life Entails

These days, unless I’m feeling generous, I simply say, “I don’t drink,” and leave it at that. There are many people living sober lives that don’t turn to drugs to numb their emotions or seek a high. While being sober doesn’t guarantee a happy life, using drugs ensures one is trapped in a downward spiral of addiction.

Whenever you suffer from addiction, you’re willing to spend every last penny that you have on alcohol or drugs. Blowing through your own money may even cause you to steal money from those close to you to pay https://stylevanity.com/2023/07/top-5-questions-to-ask-yourself-when-choosing-sober-house.html for substances. That’s why one benefit of living a sober life is that you will not spend your money on substances anymore. Therefore, you’ll have more ready funds than you did while suffering from addiction.

Sometimes the memory of what it was like before you started abusing drugs might not be or might not seem to have been pleasant. However, you must also make plans to work towards those goals. If your main goal is stay sober, make sure that attending regular 12-step meetings or support groups is on the top of your to-do list. If you’ve added some other goals to your list, such as getting healthy, you may also add in items like grocery shopping, cooking a nutritious dinner, and going to the gym. When living a sober life after addiction, your overall health improves immensely.

There’s the sense that if you’re not using drugs or alcohol, somehow life is boring or uninteresting. There’s the misconception that if you’re sober, you aren’t fun, you won’t be able to enjoy your life to the fullest and you’ll have trouble forming relationships. Substance abuse can take a toll on your energy levels, leaving you feeling drained and exhausted. That’s because you have to deal with sleep disorders, lower immunity, diminished physical health as well as mental health issues.

Because addiction takes so much away from a person’s life, they usually start out with very little when they finally decide to get sober. I think that it is the process of having to work for everything again that makes us appreciate it even more. People in long term recovery know how fragile this can be and therefore learn to value these things more than they did before. Many people start to rediscover hobbies and activities they used to enjoy before drugs and alcohol took over their lives. They start to exercise, play sports, take up painting or singing, and attend concerts. Relationships formed while someone is in the throes of addiction often require adjustments when that person gets clean.

• You can travel to different places, try new things, and just be present in your life – and that’s always more fulfilling than checking out with a drink.
• Your partner has to be the one to have your back all the time, has to be supportive of what you doing, and has to be in sync with you.
• Continuous substance abuse can even do things like cause your blood pressure to spike or decrease to an unhealthy range.
• Many 12-step programs suggest that sobriety means total abstinence—never using the substance ever again.