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Instead of spending Saturday morning hungover in bed, you can get out and hike at a new park, bike a local trail, or go out for lunch with friends. Instead of planning your life around your next drink or hit of drugs, the opportunities for having fun expand exponentially once your mind is clear, your body is able, and your spirit is willing. All you have to do is get out there and go find some fun sober activities. How many times did you have to apologize for things you said or did while you were addicted? Without the influence of drugs and alcohol, you’re bound to make better decisions, and as a result, you’ll make fewer apologies to the people you love. Although you’ll probably still need to make apologies here and there, they won’t be a result of drunken escapades and you can genuinely apologize and make amends with a clear and sober mind.
What drinks give worse hangover?
Dark drinks, like red wine and bourbon, have more congeners than light ones and there are several studies to show that for a given level of blood alcohol, dark drinks produce worse hangovers.
In turn, you put less time and focus into your career and saving for the future. In addition to living a better, more fulfilling life, sobriety can also extend your years due to increased health and wellness. Back when you were addicted, you spent so much time being preoccupied with your next high, getting high, or recovering from it. Now that you have eliminated drugs and alcohol from your life, you have so much more time to fill with meaningful activities. Whether you choose to spend it working toward a personal goal you have, spending quality time with family, or pursuing a new hobby, you should find comfort in knowing that your time is much better spent sober. Living a sober life after going through addiction gives you a new perspective on life. This is because it allows you to see the world through new eyes after being clouded by alcohol and drugs for so long.
What are Some Challenges in Achieving the Sober Life?
Just be sure that your rewards don’t involve drugs or alcohol. Instead, focus on things, experiences, and activities that will support your new, healthy lifestyle. If you find it difficult to make new, sober friends, try joining a support group. Spending more time with supportive loved ones and planning activities for the entire family can also help you develop a healthier lifestyle and avoid situations in which you would normally drink or use drugs. However, there are different ways to benefit from these programs. For someone who’s completed a program at a drug rehab, recovery fellowships are an opportunity to network with other recovering addicts and to begin getting acclimated to the local recovery community. It can also be a chance to find a sober buddy or a sponsor (see tip no. 5).
When you cut drugs and alcohol out of your life completely, you are forced to face these painful emotions and difficult circumstances without substances. But as you learn how to cope more healthily, you’ll eventually find that you feel less stressed and anxious overall.
You’ll Gain More Time
Remember, in the end, they are just dreams and don’t affect your current reality. The frequency of drunk dreams seems to fade as you acquire more sober time. Getting sober could be the biggest and best decision you ever make. Generally speaking, we have to be in a great enough amount of pain in order to finally take those steps toward change.
- If you’re involved in a 12-step program, you likely already know the importance of milestones.
- It’s an authentic community of people with similar experiences who have found each other, and with it, so much strength in the powerful sense of belonging that they find there.
- Once we take the first step into our new sober lives, we often feel terrified, unsure, and reluctant.
- Something simple, like relearning an instrument you use and playing a single simple song, reading one book per week, or something similar.
- You will discover newfound energy and motivation, putting it towards exercise and healthy habits.
- Alcohol helped me forget my awkwardness and not-belongingness and it helped me talk to and be with people without my neck muscles freezing up .
My biggest fears in life include being in large groups of strange people, standing at parties by myself, and really just people in general. Alcohol helped me forget my awkwardness and not-belongingness and it helped me talk to and be with people without my neck muscles freezing up .
You have more free time.
People addicted to drugs often become so dependent on them to numb their negative emotions that for them, happiness becomes this fake thing that only lasts for a small period of time. Often they are convinced that everyone else does some kind of drug, pills or alcohol to cope with life and enjoy life, but that’s not the case. Not only that but sober life these days is becoming a lot more of a norm for many. Without taking the time to consider why you want to pursue sobriety, you may decide not to begin at all. However, identifying such reasons to be sober and anticipating an improved life quality and enhanced interpersonal relationships can help you stay motivated to work hard during treatment and recovery.
Why does gin not give you a hangover?
There's also something to say about sticking to gin and vodka. When Supercall spoke with food scientists, gin and vodka proved to be the best alcohol to avoid the 17 stages of a hangover because they lack other dehydration-causing additives.
You can take in every second, and not feel like your life is passing you by in a whirlwind of blurred memories. Being sober will help you build relationships and cope with hardships better. Resting is always a valid option, but sometimes you’re just not sure what you need. You’re more likely to stick with goals that deeply matter to you. It depends on what substance you are recovering from, how long you’ve been using it, and how much you used.
Enjoy the Benefits of Sobriety with Help From Silver Linings!
We don’t need an outside stimulus, like drugs or alcohol, to change our emotions. How we decide to feel about certain circumstances and our own emotions is up to us. Just as your definition of sobriety and idea of a sober life can differ from other people’s, your reasons for wanting to live substance-free may vary, too. Any person dealing with drug or alcohol dependency or addiction should develop a personal list of reasons why staying sober is a worthy goal. This list can help you put in perspective what you find so valuable that it’s worth the dedication, hard work and effort you put into ceasing alcohol consumption and walking away from drug use. In general, the term “sobriety” refers to the condition of not being intoxicated. While a general idea of what sobriety is may exist, it can mean different things to different people.
- Whenever you suffer from addiction, you’re willing to spend every last penny that you have on alcohol or drugs.
- But it is possible to take baby steps and get your finances in order.
- Often they are convinced that everyone else does some kind of drug, pills or alcohol to cope with life and enjoy life, but that’s not the case.
- So if you’re drunk and communicating with someone in distress, if the dopamine is telling you everything is peachy, then you assume that’s the case for everyone.
- We don’t need an outside stimulus, like drugs or alcohol, to change our emotions.
- This is especially the case if you’re taking depressants or downers.
When I finally walked away from booze at 34, my life opened up. I can honestly say sobriety is the best thing I have ever done for myself. It was my jumping-off point into a life I knew I had buried inside of me.