Sobriety is a serious matter and you are not alone. Alcohol addiction doesn’t have to be mastered alone but if you need some help, look no further.
Change Your Environment
The first thing to do is say goodbye to all of your party friends that are drinking out with you (not easy, I know). A good way to do this is to let them all know that you can no longer be around them while they are drinking. By telling them, they can support you on your journey to defeating alcohol addiction.
If they would like to see you outside of that (with no temptation), then great! You need to be in a supportive environment with supportive friends. If they aren’t going to support you, then move on!
Find places that you can hang out at that do not serve alcohol is definitely recommended. This also gives you the chance to meet new people and maybe even new lifetime friends.
Support Programs
Many mobile apps support this type of lifestyle such as:
- Eventbrite
- All Events in City
- Meetup
These allow you to find events, food shows, workshops and even running groups.
It can be a great way to connect and get support or find people that may be more supportive of your new lifestyle. New Roads Behavioral Health also offers many support programs for those who are trying to become sober and much much more!
Find Your Perfect Schedule
Having a schedule for every day has been proven to assist with recovery. If your life is a little crazy and chaotic, you are more likely to want to go back to your old ways and then that leads to a relapse.
Once you officially have a daily/weekly schedule, you will find that it is way easier to stick to and won’t want to branch off and find those old friends. You can set monthly goals and slowly achieve them and give yourself something to be proud of!
Get Your Body in Tip-Top Shape
Second, becoming somebody who focuses more on their health and nutrition can be something that will not only make your body happy, but it will also allow your natural state of mind to relax a little. Stress can be one of the main causes of relapsing and staying active may be your new favorite thing to do!
Kickboxing This Habit
Set a specific time of day to go to the gym, go for a walk, participate in a fitness class like:
- yoga
- calisthenics
- barre
- Pilates
- Zumba
- martial arts
- kickboxing
The point of becoming physically active is to help with the balance that you are trying to get back into your life.
This is why scheduled classes can be a great addition. Finding a gym partner or a workout buddy can help too (two is better than one). You two will also be able to motivate each other to go when the other is not feeling it.
Detox Your Liver
There are many benefits to improving your nutrition and eating better that will help you on your journey. Doing a liver detox is a great place to start because all of that alcohol can be damaging.
It can give you more energy throughout the day, put you in a better mood, aids your body in fat loss, reduces the risk of diabetes, has been proven to improve your memory, improves heart-health, aids in stroke prevention, reduces the risk of cancer, and much more!
Improving your health will also help with post-withdrawal symptoms that are sprouted from lack of exercise and poor nutrition choices.
Focus on Your Happiness Without Alcohol
It is a known fact that most recovering alcoholics have trouble when they are in difficult situations that are accompanied by anger, stress, depression, and anxiety. These feelings often lead to wanting alcohol to help calm yourself and that is no longer an option.
Feelings of anger, stress, anxiety, and sadness are all natural emotions that everyone experiences, it is the way that you decide to process and deal with it that truly matters. Learn how to walk away from certain stressful situations.
Find Someone to Depend on
Find someone you can talk to about it and learn how to process it positively. New Roads Behavioral Health’s Outpatient program can provide group/individual counseling sessions.
With a new way of life comes change and sometimes that leads to evaluating your “old ways”. To be able to move forward with your life and take charge, approaching those guilty feelings and shame that you may feel from friends and family members.
Sometimes it is just better to seclude yourself from all of them and learn to be happy and content with the changes that you are trying to make to better your overall health and life. You want to reach a point where alcohol is no longer something that you think about anymore.
You’re Not Alone
There are ways you can re-approach those negative feelings and make apologies where they are needed. Just know that everyone has made mistakes and the way that we deal with them is most important.
Take time at the end of each day to create a list of things that you are thankful for. This could be that you made it to work on time, didn’t need to ask for help and had a nice relaxing walk with your dog.
Focus on Your Employment
A lot of alcoholics and addicts have a hard time maintaining a career, or even a job for that matter. If you already have a job, then great! Keep it and try to be the best employee that you can be and learn to be a reliable employee at that.
Alcoholics have a tendency to miss a lot of work or end up in jail. Then they lose their job and have to look for another temporary job. Find something that really interests you for work and helps you look forward to showing up!
Don’t be Jobless
Being jobless can lead to many problems like not being able to pay rent, buy groceries, support your family or even support yourself. Everyone has to go to work and be an adult, so do it!
It is a big part of life and if you are lucky, you will find a job that you like and turn around your financial position. It takes time to truly achieve financial stability, try these:
- designing a monthly plan to keep you on a payment schedule
- creating a monthly budget
- invest in your future (set aside money from each paycheck)
- eliminate any debt (set-up a payment plan)
- pay bills immediately
* Learning how to get out of debt will completely change your life for the better.
When starting a new job, remember that it can get stressful, and take it one day at a time. This stress can often act as a trigger and to prevent a relapse, find the best support system that you can, and take the necessary steps in maintaining your new healthy lifestyle.
Educate Yourself on Sobriety
One of the most helpful things to do in any new situation is to educate yourself especially on ways you can move on by truly defeating alcohol. The key is to attend groups and learn more from counselors about any unanswered questions you have.
Do some research, you must understand this process as a whole. Your aunt (in another state) may not know anything about recovery and could recommend that you attend all meetings and not drink alcohol again.
It is easier said than done and doesn’t work for every addict, you may need these other steps to help you with adapting to this new opportunity of becoming a better you!
There is Always More Help to Defeat Alcohol
This is a process that will take time. Viewing this as a lifetime of sobriety may be overwhelming and it may be easier to take it one day at a time (24 hours). 24 hours can be a good goal to start out with and then progressing to three days until you make it to 30 days.
30 days of sobriety is the best start to move on and no longer craving that naughty habit. A majority of recovering addicts will tell you that the first 30 days are the hardest and that the journey is not easy.
Letting your body recover from all of the harmful substances will result in some side effects (nausea, bloating, exhaustion). Just be prepared and you will make it through until your body starts to feel normal again.
Keep Going
New Roads Behavioral Health has locations in Salt Lake City, Provo, Cottonwood Heights, Utah. At each location is an educated staff with helpful programs that are inpatient and outpatient recovery programs.
New Roads offers three exceptional, different types of supportive programs for you. Do you want to stay sober? Then find somewhere or someone that will hold you accountable every week.
Whatever your needs may be, the best way is to contact with any questions!
You are in control of your own story and the statistics don’t matter. The decisions that you make from this point forward will assist you with moving forward.
The road may be long, but as you move forward defeating alcohol, you will start to crave alcohol less and less and it will become easier with each passing day. Not everything will work for you and by taking your time and evaluating what makes you happy (without alcohol), you can start the hike to the top of sobriety mountain by defeating alcohol!