You may also need to change your route to work or home in order to avoid any triggers, or people, places, or things that make you want to use drugs or drink again. Sobriety means not being under the influence of a substance. However, the word is often used in different ways in different contexts. Many 12-step programs suggest that sobriety means total abstinence—never using the substance ever again.

Spend time focused on someone other than yourself and your own situation won’t seem so bad. You can also reach out to those in the 12 step community. When things feel out of control or you feel that you’re at risk for relapse, go to a meeting. Stand up and say, I’m having a rough time, and any extra support is appreciated.

Handle Problems Head on

When it seems like all you want to do is forget, to go get high or drunk and be gone, if only for a few moments, remember what addiction’s cost you. Remember what life was like when every moment was chaos and unmanageable. Remember how family and friends wouldn’t return calls or didn’t trust to leave you alone. Thankfully, there have only been a few times when someone at the table hasn’t pointed it out on my behalf and adjusted accordingly. However, when it has happened, I have to speak up to point out that I didn’t drink and I’m not subsidizing their drinking. If you’re like me, this can feel entirely terrifying.

Milestones can help motivate a person to remain sober to reach the next milestone. Getting support doesn’t have to mean going to rehab, although that is an option. Support can also look like joining in-person and online support groups. One recent study demonstrated the potential benefits of combining in-person and online support methods.

Self-Reflection in Sobriety

I’m no longer a self-absorbed, sad woman drinking herself into oblivion every night. How many relapses result from people thinking they can handle it by themselves? Sobriety forces you to rewrite your personal history.

• It can be a good replacement for the release of endorphins caused by drinking alcohol.
• It may seem that relapse is the last thing that could happen to you, but the truth is they are very common for people new to recovery.
• Every day, find something you are grateful for and write about it, post it on your social media (for shared oxytocin release), or find a way to express it through art.
• A mental health professional can help you cope with some of the challenges you’ll face on your path to sobriety.
• My past relapses were largely fueled by sobriety’s inability to solve my problems for me.
• If someone can’t support the recovery from addiction that is saving your life, then losing them is not really a loss.

If someone can’t support the recovery from addiction that is saving your life, then losing them is not really a loss. While opioids don’t necessarily have the life-threatening withdrawals of alcohol and benzos, it does have one danger that regularly takes countless lives every single year. To explain, opioids tend to build up tolerance especially being sober sucks quickly in habitual abusers. And in that same way, tolerance to these drugs also drops faster than most people might expect. The trouble, then, comes from when someone is trying to kick their opioid addiction but ends up relapsing. For these individuals, they may go back to using the exact same dosage of the drug that got them high before.