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Five Ways to Stay Sober
Achieving sobriety is a noteworthy accomplishment; maintaining sobriety takes dedication and perseverance. For as motivating as it feels to overcome an alcohol use disorder, recovery isn’t a foregone conclusion — it’s a lifelong process that setbacks can disrupt.
Many people experience alcohol use disorder as a chronic disease that carries an inherent risk of relapse and recurrence. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to mitigate that risk so you can keep your recovery — and your life — on track.
As addiction treatment experts who specialize in sober living, the team at Wasatch Recovery Treatment Center understands that getting sober and staying sober are essentially two sides of the same coin. Both sides require awareness, effort, and support.
Let’s explore five strategies that can help you stay the course in your recovery:
1. Take it one day at a time
Sobriety may be measured in months, years, and even decades, but the process itself unfolds one day at a time. When things are going well, successful days stretch into successful weeks; when life is stressful, staying sober can turn into a moment-by-moment endeavor that requires all your perseverance and staying power.
Instead of being overwhelmed by how you’ll maintain sobriety for the next week, month, or year, focus on making it through today without drinking. And even as successful days build into successful weeks, months, and years, your lifetime commitment to sobriety will still be fulfilled moment by moment, day by day.
2. Establish a new routine
It’s challenging to stay sober if you slip into the same routine you followed when you drank. Staying sober requires you to create a new, healthier routine — one that sheds old habits as it prioritizes self-care and supports your long-term well-being.
When you’re living in recovery, old habits and routines can become powerful triggers that lead to relapse. It’s critical to build your day around routines that help you become more active, eat well, get enough sleep, control stress, and stay connected with supportive friends and family.
This strategy doesn’t just help you avoid relapse triggers; it also gives you the tools you need to fill your time purposefully, improve your mood without alcohol, and feel better overall.
3. Develop new interests
While getting sober can give you drive and motivation, it can also leave you feeling bored and restless. Considering how recovery requires you to transform virtually every aspect of your life, such emotions are only natural. Unfortunately, they also make you vulnerable to relapse.
Given that boredom is a common precursor to relapse developing new interests and hobbies can go a long way in helping you preserve your sobriety and stay on track. When you drank, you probably couldn’t enjoy yourself without alcohol; now that you’re sober, you need to find new interests and hobbies that engage your brain and help you unwind.
4. Build a support system
Sobriety is a lot easier to maintain when you disengage from unsupportive friends and family members, particularly if alcohol dependence is a common theme in your social circle. For many people who go through treatment and get sober, this often means making an entirely new set of friends.
Sobriety can be lonely until you develop healthy, supportive friendships with new people. To make the undertaking feel less daunting, rebuild your social circle slowly, one meaningful new connection at a time. Look for like-minded people in your recovery group, yoga class, weekly religious service, or any other shared activity where alcohol doesn’t play a role.
5. Engage in aftercare
It’s challenging to avoid slipping up here and there during recovery; in fact, it’s incredibly rare for someone to go through treatment and never drink again. The key to staying sober is to not allow one minor slip-up to send you spiraling toward relapse.
For most people, sobriety is an ever-evolving state of being that can grow stronger with every success and bow under stress. Minor slip-ups and periodic relapses are normal and common in recovery; what’s important is to learn from them and keep trying.
Engaging in aftercare — whether in the form of group therapy, day treatment, or sober living — can be critical to overcoming temporary setbacks. With guidance and support from the team at Wasatch Recovery Treatment Center, you can achieve sobriety and stay on the path to recovery.
To learn about the treatment options and aftercare solutions available at Wasatch Recovery Treatment Center, give us a call today. We have a residential location in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and an outpatient and sober living facility in East Sandy, Utah.
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