If you’ve reached the phase of early sobriety, you must congratulate yourself for completing your substance abuse program. It is a crucial personal achievement that reflects your hard work and commitment to your sobriety.
However, the path to achieving long-term sobriety is still a long one. For people in early recovery, staying sober can be challenging, especially if they meet their former drinking friends, visit similar drinking places, and old habits like using alcohol to cope. These are also often the triggers that lead to relapse and must not be ignored during aftercare. Moreover, various holidays and celebrations where drinking is every day can make it very difficult for you to navigate and are too triggering during early sobriety.
So, here are some helpful tips to successfully survive your phase of early sobriety after completing your substance abuse program from a Las Vegas alcohol rehab.
Don’t Ignore Any Warning Signs
You fail to survive your early sobriety phase the moment your emotions and mind drift to drugs or alcohol. However, each person’s relapse warning signs are unique. Asking yourself these following questions can help you identify some of the common warning signs experienced by people in early sobriety-
- Are you unable to keep your commitments or behaving less responsibly?
- Are your addictive thinking patterns returning?
- Are you increasingly engaging in impulsive behaviour?
- Are you seeking out your old acquaintances, places, or things where you can find alcohol or drugs?
If your answers are yes, it’s highly recommended to talk to your counselor, therapist, or partner and ask for their feedback. Often becoming aware of your warning signs and addressing them quickly can solve half the problem. The remaining problems can be solved with the help of the rest of the tips.
Accept and Move Forward
You may feel hurt or guilty in the course of your addiction, as you may have done or said things you would never do in your sober state. Although, you definitely owe heartfelt apologies to those you have hurt, it is equally crucial to accept the damages caused by your addiction. You must accept and move forward by focusing on avoiding any such behavior again through continued sobriety.
Find Something to Spend Time
- Spirituality– Religious or spiritual people should dedicate their post-recovery period to connecting with a higher power or meditation to help calm their mind.
- Self-care– Set some time aside every week for yourself to help rejuvenate your energy and mind. This may include self-care like writing journals, exercising, hanging out with friends, or just going for a walk. This will keep you from feeling overwhelmed.
- Hobby– Boredom is often the culprit in triggering a relapse. Therefore, it is essential to find something to do that can help keep your sobriety. Your hobbies should engage you physically, socially, or intellectually. Either you can engage in your old hobbies or develop a new one!
- Work– Spending most of the day’s part and energy into fulfilling work you love. This will not only keep your mind distracted but will also make you feel accomplished and productive, not to forget that it pays bills too.
Take Support of Friends and Family
Becoming completely sober even after completing treatment requires time and constant support of your family, friends, and loved ones, especially in your post-recovery phase. Therefore, please don’t shy away from seeking their assistance as supportive environmental settings are equally important.
Quitting heroin and any other addictive substance is no easy task. You must be resilient and determined to stay clean. Remember to attend NA meetings as well, these meetings are crucial for you to stay clean and motivated for the rest of your life. After all, you never really stop being an addict, you just learn how to live with it.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that the initial phase of being sober can be difficult. However, following these early sobriety tips can significantly make your transition from treatment to ongoing recovery much more comfortable and quicker, and easier.
