Embarking on the path to recovery from alcohol addiction is a courageous journey filled with challenges and triumphs.
As you work hard to overcome your addiction and achieve sobriety and live a sober life, you might find yourself wondering “What now?”
Once you’ve gone a day, you start thinking about a week. After a week sober, you start thinking about a month. It’s still important to take it day by day, but eventually you start to fall into a new pattern of habits where you don’t find yourself having to fight the demons on a daily level in the same way.
Granted, there will be some days that are easier than others, but day 1000 sober feels different than day 1, even if it feels the same in other days. Just be ready for this!
Embrace The New You
You may still encounter people who knew you as a heavy drinker, and they may still have some ideas about you, and this can be difficult to deal with. Even years later, it can feel like the shadow of your past is still haunting you. But guess what? That’s a much better problem to have than still being the same heavy drinker those people remember.
Firstly, who cares what they think, but secondly, you’ve turned your life around in a way that many people can’t do, regardless of what issue they’re struggling with. You’ve shown huge character and determination, and there are people who will recognize that.
As more time passes, you’ll be able to embrace the new you, understanding that mistakes you’ve made in the past are just that: mistakes from the past.
People in your life will come around, they’ll also embrace the new you, even if some of them are apprehensive at first.
Set New Goals
You’ve overcome the biggest burden in your life, you’re moving forward… and so having new goals and aspirations is a great way to embrace your new life.
Recovery opens the door to endless possibilities.
Setting meaningful goals and aspirations becomes a driving force in moving forward. Whether it’s pursuing higher education, starting a business, starting a new career, taking on creative projects, or embarking on new adventures altogether, sobriety provides the clarity and determination to achieve these aspirations.
Plus the confidence boost of knowing how much you’ve already overcome. All of the things listed in above are very achievable, especially if you remind yourself what you’re capable of.
Maintain Your Sobriety
You might expect there to be a clear, defined line. On one side, you’re an alcohol. Once you’ve overcome it, you cross the line, and that’s it.
Staying sober after recovery may come with its share of triggers and challenges. Stress, difficult emotions, social situations, or memories can potentially lead to relapse if not managed properly.
Recovery is an on-going process. It becomes less and less of your daily focus as you move forward. At first, it’s everything. Eventually, you fill in those empty spots in your life with new hobbies, new people, and so on and the hole left by alcohol, or the amount of energy you put into getting sober at first, becomes less and less a factor in each day.
Having said that, recovery and sobriety is certainly something that needs to be maintained. Maintenance includes avoiding triggers to drink, avoiding situations where you risk relapse, and so on.
Don’t think about it as “going back to normal” because normal was a debilitating addiction, you have to do different than before – but that’s okay. Embrace it!
Helping Others
When something works for you in your recovery, you may want to share it with other people. This can even be a career path. It’s not uncommon for somebody who recovers from an addiction, to take on a job that allows them to help others walk the same path.
You aren’t obligated to volunteer or seek employment in the addictions recovery field,
