Why You Shouldnt Be Afraid to Get Sober Fearing Sobriety

However, a good therapist won’t push a client to talk about anything before they’re ready. Eventually, most people discover that keeping things bottled up is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s often a tremendous relief for people to discover that their deepest, darkest secrets are not that uncommon and they no longer have to feel ashamed.

They want things to change but they don’t want to be uncomfortable, which is really true of everyone. And in addiction recovery, there are plenty of opportunities to be uncomfortable. Before talking to your boss about your struggles with addiction, know your rights and relevant company policies. While your substance use disorder may be grounds for termination if it interferes with your job performance, they cannot fire you for seeking treatment. Therefore, going to rehab is your safest option if you want to maintain your job.

The Role of Spirituality in Recovery

When you’re ready to begin your journey toward successful, long-term sobriety, the LA Detox team is here for you. Our center in Los Angeles, California, offers quality addiction treatment https://ecosoberhouse.com/ services in a safe and welcoming environment. We can assess the full scope of your needs, then develop the customized plan that will put you on the path toward improved health.

Emotions which have been repressed for years are coming up. While it is difficult, avoiding the traps of early sobriety is an attainable goal. If the person merely uses these 10 simple strategies, they can save themselves a lot of suffering.

Have You Replaced Alcohol With Sugar?

Learning to differentiate and use healthy fear as opposed to unhealthy fear is part of the process of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Active addiction changes our brain wiring when it comes to fear. We lose fear for the things we should, like the imminent threat of overdose, losing a job, or losing relationships with people we love.

You have few if any interests or social involvements that don’t revolve around drinking. You’re spending less time on activities that used to be important to you (hanging out with family and friends, going to the gym, pursuing your hobbies) because of your alcohol use. When beginning to date again, Desloover cautions against focusing too heavily on attraction, appearance and external qualities. Instead, she advises people in recovery to choose a partner they feel safe enough around to truly be themselves and whose company they enjoy. Then give friendships an opportunity to blossom into romance.

Things You Shouldn’t Say to Someone With Depression

It is also important that you should be aware of your own comments. You might not realise that you could have been sober shaming in the past. You’ve probably heard people say these things when you’ve been out. For some, they might not mean anything but these phrases can lead to people relapsing. The pressure of having a drink can push someone into breaking their sobriety.

If you decide it isn’t healthy, it should probably be removed. When we choose to do so, we first and foremost check our motives. By the same token, we should expect no special treatment in order to safeguard our own recovery — after all, we can’t ask the management at a restaurant to lock up the liquor. One of those tools is our willingness to pick up the phone and call someone. Remembering the last time we drank is a vital tool in the recovery process, because our disease wants us to forget.

Stop Being Afraid to Get Sober with Northpoint Recovery

For instance, in school, we’re told to raise our hands if we don’t know something or need extra help, but on the other hand, we know that if we do, we could open ourselves up for ridicule. This causes confusion as to whether we can safely ask for help, and our pride will mostly keep us silent when we should speak up. This results in addicts not asking for help because they’re afraid that they’ll appear weak and that people will ridicule them. This is why it’s important for people to abandon this stigma and treat addiction like the disease it is. Asking for help with addiction shouldn’t be considered shameful.

Listening to others with the same challenges can serve as a tremendous source of comfort and support. For example, you may blame an ‘unfair boss’ for trouble at work or a ‘nagging wife’ for your marital issues, rather than think about how your drinking is contributing to the problem. While work, relationship, and financial stresses happen to everyone, an overall pattern of deterioration and blaming others may be a sign of trouble. Binge drinking is defined as drinking so much that your blood alcohol level reaches the legal limit of intoxication within a couple of hours. For men, that means consuming five or more drinks within about two hours, and for women, four or more drinks within a similar period. These levels can be easy to hit if you sink shots, play drinking games, drink cocktails containing multiple servings of alcohol, or otherwise lose track of your intake.

While you can surely empathize with their position, you don’t want to return to the mindset of active addiction. If this is the case with your friends, recovery may seem like a threat to them. They might try to break down your recovery to prove that it’s not a reasonable choice for them.

• Addiction recovery is a huge achievement, and it can give you a whole new lease on life.
• If they continue to question your experience or recovery-focused behaviors, it may be time to reevaluate the friendship (more on that below).
• It’s understandable that you don’t want to be unhappy, but it’s more likely that you were using drugs and alcohol to hide from sadness in the past, anyway.
• Please do not ignore information from your doctor because of something you saw on the Coastal Detox website.

You could also join in by not drinking at that event as well. The best thing to do if you are in these environments is to check the venue and have a look at if they offer alcohol-free drinks. It may also be a good idea if you go with someone who is supportive of your sobriety or are sober themselves. Alcohol Change UK, found that 1 in 5 people feel pressured to drink by their friends. That’s at least one person sitting around the pub table with you on a Friday night. Some stay clear of temptation completely, as over 62% of men and 48% of women say they avoid the pub in the evenings and at weekends, to limit their chances of drinking alcohol.

Addictions We Treat

Most importantly, good treatment programs know how important it is for clients to feel connected and supported and they facilitate that connection through group activities and group therapy. People often say they met their best friends in addiction treatment because it is a place where most of the people have experienced similar struggles. Fear is the motivator of most actions taken by anyone in active addiction. But sometimes the juggling act gets old, the attempt at moderation becomes exhausting, and we just can’t keep all the lies straight.

• Identifying and understanding these worries is the first step to overcoming them.
• This is such a common and unhelpful coping mechanism that it’s important to warn people against it.
• Remembering the last time we drank is a vital tool in the recovery process, because our disease wants us to forget.
• When the amount of alcohol or drugs in an addict’s system drops from the amount the tissues are accustomed to, the body may react through the following set of symptoms.
• However, when someone is abusing substances and can’t stop, they shouldn’t feel afraid to ask for help with addiction.

Ending one thing to begin another means leaving the safety and comfort of the known for the unknown, and if human history has shown us anything, it’s that people fear what they don’t know. Start by talking honestly and openly with the friend or family fear of being sober member who’s drinking too much. But always remember that you can’t force someone to give up alcohol. Alcohol takes up a great deal of your energy and focus. You spend a lot of time drinking, thinking about it, or recovering from its effects.

Gather the Support of Family and Friends

Recovery is a personal choice, and your journey isn’t up for discussion. If your friends want to argue about your recovery and personal decisions, you can try to change the topic or walk away. If they continue to question your experience or recovery-focused behaviors, it may be time to reevaluate the friendship (more on that below). Admitting a loved one has a problem with alcohol can be painful for the whole family, not just the person drinking. There is help and support available for both you and your loved one. Those problems could include depression, an inability to manage stress, an unresolved trauma from your childhood, or any number of mental health issues.