The only thing more difficult than becoming clean when it comes to addiction rehabilitation is following tips to help you stay sober. Regretfully, relapses happen often. An addict who ends their addiction on their own without therapy has a 50–80% probability of relapsing. The odds are between twenty and fifty percent, even with therapy. In the end, it’s difficult to stop and much more difficult to continue.
The secret to success in life is hard effort. Living sober is not insurmountable. Saying no to your preferred substance is not the only thing that keeps you sober. Living clean requires a significant adjustment to your time management and social circle. It entails forming new, healthy behaviors to replace old ones. It entails returning to your actual self.
How To Stay Sober
1. Take Baby Steps
Taking baby steps is one of the tips to help you stay sober. Without a whole month, it is impossible to attain a year of sobriety. Heck, without a whole day, it is impossible to attain a month of abstinence. Every second matters.
But don’t approach it as if you’re just “making it through” the days. Consider each day as a fresh chance. Instead of thinking of it as a day for drinking or drug use, focus on making it your own. If you ponder about sobriety in lengthy, uninterrupted thoughts, you will overwhelm yourself. Concentrate on today—your day.
2. Take Care of Yourself
Pay attention to your general hygiene and wellness as well. It has been shown that when we feel good about ourselves, we are less inclined to misuse alcohol or drugs. The converse also holds: We are more prone to developing a drug addiction if we lower our self-esteem (research also found a link between prostitution and larceny and poor self-esteem).
Activity and nutrition. This three-word slogan is overused for a reason: it is effective. Regular exercise and a healthy diet lift our spirits and help us feel better all around. Eat healthily and exercise if you haven’t previously as part of your recuperation.
Some claim that it might even be rather beneficial to switch from your addiction to a healthy habit, like working out. CNN even featured a story on a guy who turned to jogging instead of alcohol and went from a severe addict to a model of health.
Eating healthfully doesn’t need a rigorous diet and requires very little work. Just watch out for overindulging in fattening or sugary meals. Exercise doesn’t have to be time-consuming, nor does it need P90X or club memberships. Perform pushups and sit-ups before going to bed. Walk or jog for two miles every other morning. Since it doesn’t take long, you’ll have plenty of time to pursue some new interests.
3. Explore Your Hobbies
Hobbies can be one of the great ways to stay sober. Enjoy yourself when sober. At some point, all addicts in recovery must learn how to have fun without using drugs or alcohol. You’ve associated drug misuse with satisfaction for years, if not decades. Eliminating drugs from your life could seem like taking pleasure from life away. You can lose interest in some activities. This is typical.
A change of scenery is just what you need. This is your chance to enroll in the piano lesson you’ve always wanted to take. This is the ideal time to go. It’s time to sign up for memberships, clubs, organizations, gyms, and anything else that piques your interest.
Resuming your previous activities will make you want to utilize them. Try something starting lightly and quitting whenever you need to use returns. It is one of the essential tips to help you stay sober.
4. Try Aftercare
Although you should be very proud of yourself for quitting, now is not the time to start bragging. Check to discover if there are any aftercare programs available if you were or are a part of a treatment center. If you do not attend a treatment center, you may want to take advantage of online forums, in-person recovery support groups like AA or NA meetings, or just plain old friend-making. A two-person support group is possible.
Aftercare is defined by the dictionary as “subsequent care or maintenance.” By deciding to sober up, you’ve already started to take care of yourself. You now need to continue taking that precaution.
Consider your sobriety to be comparable to a highly desirable sports card. Your Mickey Mantle rookie card may likely get twisted and dusty if you keep it out uncared for an extended period. It will become worthless. Nonetheless, the card will be appreciated if you take good care of it, putting it in a soft sleeve, a hard plastic case, and wrapping it.
With the right aftercare, so will you. In addition to everything said above, this mostly entails asking for help when you need it. Aftercare is everything you see as essential to keeping up your sobriety. Sometimes significant sacrifices are necessary.
5. Modify Your Environment
Modification of your environment is one of the best tips to help you stay sober. Not only individuals and locations may cause a relapse, but also the activities you used to undertake. It may be difficult, but if your friendships are built on going out to parties, it’s time to either suspend them completely or put them on hold.
Additionally, stay away from locations that are linked to using at all costs. Change produces change, and a fresh environment may give rise to fresh perspectives. Take up new interests and make new friends. It may help counterbalance the shock and loneliness that come with adjusting to a new situation. Make sure everyone around you is sober and has similar interests to yours.
6. Don’t Relapse
To fully abstain from drug addiction is the ultimate objective in recovery. That being said, it is very difficult to achieve, and no matter how hard you try, you might still make a mistake on a poor day. It’s crucial to recommit to your recovery at this moment instead of criticizing yourself and maybe utilizing drugs or alcohol.
This does not justify a relapse. But even the greatest among us are not immune to it. Allow yourself to be reminded of where you don’t want to go if and when you make a mistake. You may experience remorse and embarrassment after using it again when the first high wears off. Invest your energy in being committed to sobriety.
7. Remember, Moderation Is Futile
Rehab’s objective is to stop, not lessen, drug or alcohol abuse. Even a single drink at a friend’s birthday party, a single joint hit at a wedding, or a single shot of heroin may quickly spiral out of control. It usually does. Moderation only makes sense for those who aren’t reliant on the available material. You wouldn’t have needed to enter sober if moderation had been effective for you in the past.
Since addictions never just impact one person, you must set an example of sobriety right now for both yourself and everyone else you love and care about. Go one step further and engage in some charitable activities by going out there. It is one of the vital tips to help you stay sober.
8. Help Others
Helping others is one of the ways to stay sober. Now that you’re clean, you don’t know what to do with your spare time, huh? Make use of your time to encourage others to be clear-headed. Community service may also be an effective technique for healing. Your confidence will grow as you assist others. Additionally, it offers a feeling of value and camaraderie that are only experienced by helping others.
Throughout your healing process, you may draw on the self-assurance you acquire and share with others. Just keep in mind that becoming better is a process. A person cannot get sober overnight.
9. Don’t Give Up
Though it may seem cliché, nobody is incurable. Nobody is incapable of receiving assistance. Every addict in recovery embarks on a lifelong path that begins on day one. Every trip is unique, and none of them will be simple. But never give up. The instant you decide to give up, throw in the towel, and take up your drug again will be the start of the end of your life.
If left unchecked and untreated, substance abuse leads to one of three outcomes: a mental health facility, a jail, or the ground. You will either pass away, be jailed, or suffer from a mental illness. We defy anybody to think of a fourth destination—we know it sounds dramatic. Thus, persevere.
Wrapping Up
Maintaining tips to help you stay sober has no set formula. All you have to do is remain sober. If at all possible, remind yourself of the suffering your drug of choice has brought you in the past. If you ever feel like you’re about to relapse, think about how much suffering you may have caused your loved ones. Recall how much you wanted to sober up the moment you broke down before setting off on this quest. Recall your identity.
Over ten years ago, yours truly overcame an addiction to ecstasy, and since then, yours truly has not touched the substance. Although the voyage was lengthy, it was not fought on a lonely or well-worn battleground. There were new groups formed, new acquaintances established, and now there’s a chance for yours truly to potentially assist others.
Although it might take a lifetime to recover, the effort is well worth it. Rehab will make life far more enjoyable than doing drugs or being intoxicated. The acronym for SOBER is as follows: Stop, Observe, Breath, Expand, and Respond. There remains to be done. Now let’s go forward.
FAQ
Q: Is maintaining sobriety tough?
A: Remaining clean is never simple, not even with the help of friends and family. Addiction to drugs or alcohol may take a lifetime to recover from, with numerous obstacles along the way. It may seem hard at times to get through difficult times, particularly when there are significant occasions like Christmas or a friend’s birthday.
Q: What is meant by “stay sober”?
A: The main need for being deemed clean or sober is not using drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, it entails abstaining from any drugs that change mood.
Q: What makes sobriety crucial?
A: Financial, emotional, mental, emotional, and physical health all improve with sobriety. It fosters more positive interpersonal interactions and increases productivity and creativity. It is highly worth implementing into your everyday life due to its many advantages.
