Don’t let uninformed or misguided statements like “sobriety is boring” discourage you from pursuing a healthier, happier life. Be your own support system, find healthy things that make you happy, and if you do need extra help getting on the right track, there are many free community resources available throughout the country to help you. Start small, like going for a walk around the neighborhood, with the plan to one day try jogging. Set challenging, but obtainable, goals for yourself and stick to them. If you have the drive to push yourself a little bit harder (even if it’s just running an extra block or eating a protein bar instead of skipping breakfast), you’ll find that your stress, anxiety and physical fatigue will diminish. What you’ll find out early on in sobriety is not so much that it’s “boring,” but that you have a ton of additional free time on your hands.
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They’re going without alcohol for 30 days, they explain, and are documenting their experience https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/5-tips-of-how-to-maintain-recovery-motivation/ in a podcast and on Instagram at #boozelessATX. It included just 16 people who had been in the habit of drinking about two drinks per day on average. Still, the findings were provocative, scientists say, and merit following up.
- If you’re struggling, reach out and ask for help.
- That said, while “recovery” and “sobriety” are different terms, they’re also used interchangeably in some instances.
- Drunk me didn’t have to worry if I was alone at a party because drunk me didn’t abide such things.
- In psychology from Penn State and has previously worked in social services, nonprofit mentoring programs for at-risk youth and life coaching programs for adults with serious mental illness.
How Do We Achieve Long-Term Sobriety?
While I don’t do “fit spiritual condition” perfectly, I’m grateful for knowing what it takes, doing the work to get there, and for the gift of neutrality that it brings. And I’m grateful for the ability to recognize the briar patch and to know the freedom of not always lugging that shell around. Over the past two decades, food and work have emerged as my real drugs of choice. Like most addiction, they’re fueled by shame and the “not enough” gremlins. They’re also tricky addictions because I’m good at abstaining but not so good at moderation.
Enjoy healthy self-control, a centered enjoyment of life, and inner freedom.
- Even if things feel like they are beyond your control (a difficult boss, terrible landlord, legal problems, or financial difficulties), you always have the option to take the first step toward improving the situation.
- You have the power to make changes that will improve your life, make sobriety more interesting, and connect with awesome people who can help you enjoy your life in recovery.
- Find his full works at hhkeegan.com or connect with him @hhkeegan.
- It’s part of the sobriety package, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
- Her advice was to quit drinking, quit smoking, quit emotional eating, and quit trying to control and manage my family’s crises.
- I can’t count the number of times I woke up in the middle of the night hot, restless, and uncomfortable after having a few drinks.
The feeling that there is nothing to be ashamed of, that you are taking being sober sucks an honorable path. The knowledge that you are putting distance every day between yourself and problematic past behaviors. If you’re struggling with alcohol in some way and considering a life of sobriety, remember that “you are not the problem,” said McKowen. “Alcohol is the problem. This is a profoundly effective drug.” “You don’t sleep well when you drink alcohol,” said McKowen.
I wrote about some of my difficulties in sobriety last year, in a post called The Worst Parts of Sobriety. I was inspired to revisit the topic after reading a recent post by Heather Lowe, called Sober is Boring and I Have Lost Friends. Personally, I find creative output to be extremely rewarding.
- Part of the reason this statement bothers me is because I used to think this way too.
- “We came to a realization that we were drinking way too often and way too much,” says Zaleski.
- Ask for extra hours at work if you’re having a hard time with roommates.
- We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation.
Habitually relying on alcohol for anxiety reduction also gets in the way of developing other ways to cope. I suspect I would have learned the value of healthy stress management years sooner if I hadn’t been in the habit of finding relief in a bottle. Taken together, the net effect of consuming alcohol generally is greater anxiety overall. “I never put together that my anxiety was related to the drinking,” said McKowen. People often use alcohol not only as a sleep aid but also to reduce anxiety, given its tranquilizing properties. Alcohol works on the same neural receptors as drugs like benzodiazepines (e.g., Xanax, Klonopin), and its calming effects are well known.
I’ll make your life more interesting.
He became a substance abuse counselor to help others but found that being in recovery was often really lonely. “They found that at the end of that month — just after one month — people, by and large, lost some weight,” says Aaron White, the senior scientific adviser to the director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Another study published last year by researchers in Britain compared the health outcomes among a group of men and women who agreed to stop drinking for one month, with the health of a group that continued to consume alcohol.
