How to Stay Sober: Tips for Your Recovery

If you are in recovery from a substance use disorder, you already know just how much work it took to be there, and you will want to do everything possible to stay away from having a relapse. Relapse might actually be the last thing that might happen to you, but the fact is they’re ubiquitous for individuals new to recovery.

It’s believed that up to eighty % of those who find long-term sobriety had a minimum of one relapse along the way.1? Some had many before they found lasting recovery. Your intentions might be good, but it requires much more than willpower to stay away from having a relapse.

Some people say probably the best advice for newcomers to recovery on how you can remain sober is actually simple: “Don’t use or drink and go to meetings.” If that formula works for you, then, by all means, do it.

But for most folks, staying sober is not that simple. The greater number of techniques you figure out how to identify triggers, cope with stress, and manage your new sober life, the easier it’s to prevent relapse.

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Determine Your Personal Triggers
An essential part of preventing relapse is understanding your external triggers (situations, things, places, or people that elicit thoughts or perhaps cravings associated with substance use) and your internal triggers (feelings, thoughts, or perhaps emotions associated with substance abuse). When you identify the biggest risks, you can build a plan to prepare for or perhaps stay away from them.

Some common triggers may include:

Stress
Mental distress
Environmental cues that result in cravings
Those who are still using drugs or perhaps drinking
Relationship troubles
Financial problems or perhaps job

Recognize Relapse Warning Signs
A relapse can sneak up on you, usually since you do not recognize the warning signs. Relapse begins long before you really pick up a drug or a drink and involves 3 phases: emotional relapse, mental relapse, and physical relapse.

Warning signs of relapse include:2?

Returning to addictive thinking patterns.
Engaging in compulsive, self-defeating behaviors
Seeking out situations involving folks who use drugs and alcohol
Thinking less rationally and behaving less responsibly Finding yourself in a situation where drug or perhaps alcohol use looks like a logical escape from pain.

Prepare for PAWS

Concerning the kind of dependency, post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) can keep going from 6 months to 2 years after you stop using and include an assortment of symptoms that range from irritability, sleep troubles, and intermittent anxiety to prolonged depression.

The symptoms involved in PAWS can be a barrier to recovery in case you are not careful. Along with being able to identify them, you must know when to seek help.

If PAWS is actually severe, or perhaps if you are experiencing prolonged symptoms, a doctor can make it easier to work through them and remain in recovery with no relapse.

Please stay away from Old Routines and Habits

It stands to reason that in case you quit the drug of yours of choice but continue with the same routine of yours, hanging around the same folks and places, and not making some changes in the circumstances of yours, it is going to be much easier to slip back into the old behaviors of yours and habits.

Several of the quick changes you will need to make will be obvious – like not hanging around the folks you used with or perhaps obtained drugs from. All things considered, you cannot be around the drug dealer of yours or perhaps old drinking buddies and expect to stay sober for very long.

You might also have to change the route of yours to work or perhaps home to be able to stay away from people, or any triggers, places, or even things that make you wish to use drink or drugs again.

Build Healthy Relationships
Now you’re sober; you might have found out that the previous relationships weren’t only unhealthy but downright toxic. It is not just your drinking buddies and drug dealers who can get you into trouble – sometimes, those that are actually closest to you could contribute to a relapse.

For instance, you might have developed a co-dependent relationship, or perhaps a family member, friend, and employer may have been enabling you without even knowing it.

Does the study show that if you maintain these types of toxic relationships, the chances of your relapsing are actually greater.3? To stay away from relapse and stay sober, it is essential to create healthy relationships.

When you think it is hard to make new, sober friends, consider signing up for a support team. Spending more time with supportive loved ones and planning activities for the whole family could also enable you to create a far more healthy lifestyle and stay away from situations in which you’d usually drink or perhaps use drugs.

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