Staying sober is a task that requires consistency, restraint, and a goal in mind. If you’re already past the process of becoming sober, you understand the persistence it took to reach this point. You also may know that progress can be undone very easily, and small allowances for alcohol or drug use can culminate in a total relapse. To maintain long-term sobriety, learning these tips for staying sober can help identify triggers and potentially compromising situations.
Heading back into daily life after treatment is host to several unexpected challenges. Environmental factors, such as returning to common habitual places for substance use or drinking, can restart old habits. To ensure that deboarding from a past addiction goes smoothly, it’s encouraged you reach out to a local team of specialists. Footprints Beachside Recovery has been providing sobriety aid to those in Tampa, Florida, for years. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us by calling 727-954-3908 today and learn how our sober living program can help.
How Simple Is Maintaining Sobriety?
The process of sobriety is often handled by outsiders with a quick, digestible word of advice: “don’t drink, don’t use drugs.” While this is an answer, and it is simple, it doesn’t address the core difficulties of sobriety. Staying sober takes more than a static mindset of “do not”; it requires awareness of the self, environment, and situations that could reintroduce the urge to drink or use.
5 Tips for Staying Sober
There are several techniques to prevent relapse in the future. All of them share a commonality in how they teach recognition and action. First, recognize a potential trigger for relapse, and then follow up by acting accordingly—whether that’s avoiding the trigger or replacing it with something else.
Recognize relapse early
Almost 80% of recovered substance users cite relapse as a point of near-failure on their sobriety journey. Before a relapse occurs, be mindful of the early warning signs common to relapses. Burning out on recovery practices, having addictive thoughts, and a generally heightened compulsion can indicate relapse.
Create new habits
Returning home, or any place where substance use or drinking regularly took place, can be a potential threat to sobriety. For example, say you sat on the sofa to have a drink every day. Now, the act of sitting down can tap into that habitual response to drink again. This doesn’t mean you should sell your sofa—just remain mindful of old habits, and create new ones in their place.
Assess your peers
The company you keep can be extremely influential as far as sobriety goes. If your closest group of friends or peers encourage or regularly participate in substance use or drinking, know that it can incline you to do the same. Conversely, a social circle that encourages sobriety can help you stay sober.
Substitute your needs
In cases where it felt like alcohol or drugs occupied a void or solved a problem before, it’s important to address those needs in other ways. Otherwise, substance use can feel like a viable solution again, leading to relapse.
Chart your progress
Keeping track of how many days you’ve been sober has been an incredibly prevalent part of daily life for many former substance users. Marking milestones is something to be proud of, and it continually strengthens itself the longer it goes on.
Structure Your Sobriety with Footprints Beachside Recovery
Some think of sobriety as an act of deprivation, but alcohol or drugs are not the only ways to meet your body’s needs. Instead, looking for ways to restructure life in a way that omits substance use is the core of sobriety. On your own, this is far from easy. But, with the help of the team at Footprints Beachside Recovery, staying sober is within reach.
Contact us at 727-954-3908 to learn more tips for staying sober, as well as how to integrate them into your daily life.
