What Does It Mean to Be Sober Curious?

You may also need to change your route to work or home in order to avoid any triggers, or people, places, or things that make you want to use drugs or drink again. It is estimated that up to 80% of those who find long-term sobriety had at least one relapse along the way. Some people experience many setbacks before they find lasting recovery.

And having that extra cash opens up a whole world of new opportunities – you could decide to save for a house, take a vacation, or go back to school, for example. As you consider what you do and don’t enjoy about alcohol, you might make the choice to have a drink on occasion. This is one key difference between the sober curious movement and total sobriety.

If you want to practice a sober lifestyle

A structured routine will help you achieve other goals in your life, whether they are short-term (like being on time for work) or long-term (like going back to school and changing careers). A mental health professional can help you cope with some of the challenges you’ll face on your path to sobriety. If PAWS is severe or if you’re experiencing prolonged symptoms, a medical professional can help you work through them and remain in recovery without relapse.

Some will certainly remain, but even those aren’t necessarily long-game friendships. Sobriety is kind of like the fast-pass line at Disneyland, except the ride is growing up. One common mistake for those who are new to alcohol and drug recovery is substituting a new compulsive behavior for their old one.

Things That Inevitably Happen to Your Personal Life When You Get Sober

You will be strongly encouraged and supported by fellow residents to attend treatment outside of the home through outpatient treatment options and/or 12-Step programs. Sober living only works if you actually want to be there and https://en.forexpamm.info/what-is-a-halfway-house-what-to-expect-in-halfway/ are committed to your recovery. To be surrounded by caring people on the same path, to share meals, and to have someone to talk to and go to meetings with can be the make-it-or-break-it factor in whether or not you stay sober.

Acknowledging and celebrating the hard work of recovery is helpful for keeping you motivated and reminding you why you took this brave step toward sobriety in the first place. Just be sure that your rewards don’t involve drugs or alcohol. Instead, focus on things, experiences, and activities that will support your new, healthy lifestyle.

You Have More Energy

Many houses require residents to attend some sort of recovery, be it a 12-step program or outpatient counseling sessions. However, most Level 1 RRs don’t provide onsite recovery services, with the possible exception of an optional 12-step recovery meeting held weekly at the home. The basic disease model of addiction says that plenty of people use drugs or alcohol to medicate their problems away. If this sounds like you, you might be surprised to find out how much more effectively you can deal with things sober.

If you believe you might have a drinking problem or want additional help to abstain from alcohol, consider talking to your doctor or a mental health professional. Your doctor can supervise your detox, recommend treatment options, and refer you to local resources in your area that can help. They can also prescribe medications that can help with withdrawal, cravings, and abstinence. The next step is to think about what being sober curious might mean in your life. For example, it might mean giving up alcohol for a period of time, such as participating in Dry January, or it might involve gradually decreasing your alcohol use. It might also mean limiting yourself to a single drink once each week when you are out with friends or replacing your usual cocktail with a non-alcohol option.

Getting and Staying Sober with Monument

I’d argue that many of us gravitated to a group of friends who have drinking habits that align with our own, and we did this because we didn’t want sober friends. It’s seen as normal to drink, and quitting that drug can feel like breaking a social pact. So your bold, life-improving decision to not drink will mean changes almost everywhere you look.

• In these programs, it’s customary to receive plastic chips as you progress to the one-year mark, at which time you receive a bronze coin.
• There, I learned the power of growth and change one day at a time.
• Setbacks don’t erase progress; they don’t mean you’ve “failed” to stay sober.
• Their primary purpose is still to provide a substance-free environment for people to live in, but the programs are more structured than Level 2 homes.
• You will be strongly encouraged and supported by fellow residents to attend treatment outside of the home through outpatient treatment options and/or 12-Step programs.

But they can be anywhere between $300 and $2,000, depending on the neighborhood and amenities. It further provides healthy coping skills and emergency contact numbers in times of high-stress or high-cravings/urges to use. This way you will have a plan of action for what to do during these times and have healthy ways to manage triggers in your daily life. The NARR created standardized language and definitions that are used to identify the different types of sober living homes based on the level of services and structure that they provide.

Sober living homes are group homes that are free of alcohol and drugs for individuals in recovery. They operate like co-ops, where you pay the costs and maintain the home by contributing to the upkeep of the house through rent and chores. Substance abuse may have taken years of your life, so sober living homes can help you regain them. Lastly, it allows you to build meaningful sober relationships and bonds. For a lot of people in recovery, moving into a sober living home after treatment makes the difference between going back to their old habits or continuing on the path of sobriety. Here are some of the fun activities you can enjoy that do not result in waking up drooling in a Bushwick warehouse.

• Building a support network can have a huge impact on your journey and can include friends, family, professionals and peers.
• The NARR created standardized language and definitions that are used to identify the different types of sober living homes based on the level of services and structure that they provide.
• When you know you’ll be in a social setting that involves alcohol, preparing your response ahead of time helps you stick to your decision in a situation where you might feel swayed.
• Well, there’s a concept in psychology known as “confirmation bias,” and it means that we often look for evidence to support something that we already believe to be true.

Be it friends, family, or a loving partner, these important figures in your life typically fall second to your addiction. However, once you forgo your addiction, the people that mean the most to you become your primary point of focus. When you’re overcome by an addiction, it’s almost impossible Intermittent explosive disorder Symptoms and causes to maintain healthy relationships with those around you. When you stop drinking, you’ll notice just how many aspects of your physical appearance appear brighter and more healthy. For many, this is significantly noticeable in terms of hair, complexion, lacking dark circles, and overall weight.

It Will Increase Your Ability to Build Long-Lasting Relationships

The sober curious movement, however, suggests there’s plenty of room for alternative approaches. In terms of calories, binge drinking typically becomes the number one calorie source for addicts. Without this additional, daily calorie source, former addicts are significantly minimizing their calorie load. Instead, calories are now coming from foods that are more natural for the body and easier to process. When you’re fueling an addiction, it’s not uncommon to feel that you have a total lack of energy. When you embrace a sober lifestyle, you are no longer showing up to the office in a state of exhaustion and confusion.

At the end of the day, it takes a serious amount of money to fuel daily addiction. Not only are you spending money on alcohol, but you’re also likely spending excess money on things that are tied to your addiction. These are things such as nightclubs, entertainment, and restaurants. Chronically abusing substances has many more negative effects on human health. For example, chronic abuse of substances can cause you to either lose or gain an unhealthily large amount of weight.

When you’re suffering from addiction, your only concern is to get more substances. As a result, you neglect your physical appearance and personal hygiene. Over time, chronic substance abuse can even cause physical body issues such as heart palpitations and pain, diarrhea, seizures, diabetes, heart disease, and more. Why put yourself through all of that when you can live a happy, sober, and healthy life instead. Due to the toxicity level of alcohol and drugs, when you chronically abuse them, your immune system lowers. Therefore, when you stop placing such toxic substances in your body or even relieve your body of the toxic substances that it already has within it through detox, your immune system receives a boost.