Sobriety Strategies: 13 Tips for Staying Sober

fear of being sober

The thought of pulling your life back together or improving it can seem impossible. In those early days, it’s always possible to find yourself experiencing emotions you don’t know how to deal with well. Yet, with the help of your team of professionals, you can work through them and find yourself in a much better place. Relapse (using substances again after stopping) can and does happen, with 85% of people experiencing relapse at least once and half of them doing so within the first two weeks of sobriety. Getting sober may seem difficult, but there are strategies you can use to get and maintain sobriety.

There are plenty of things people do that do not involve or center around alcohol. You might be a little bored at first, but with time, you’ll discover new and more fulfilling things to do with your time. The truth is, you have no idea what success will look or feel like.

They can help you work through them and explain more about how you can recover more fully. For some, alcohol and drug use creates issues itself. You’ve kept using to help escape the consequences of those situations. You bac depends on what have to make a decision to move forward by overcoming fear of those losses.

fear of being sober

Build Healthy Relationships

You may also experience what is commonly called sobriety fatigue, which refers to the overall exhaustion that may occur as a result of the emotional and physical stress of staying sober. So, it’s extra helpful to have a support network available to you when you need it. Regularly remind yourself of the positive changes that sobriety has brought to your life.

  1. Our hopes and dreams may have gotten stuffed down along the way during our descent into drugs or alcohol, too.
  2. Instead of being afraid that you won’t recognize yourself, look at it as an opportunity.
  3. Sometimes our fears are logical, but mostly they are not.
  4. Now that you can recognize this fear, the question is, how do you get through it?
  5. Below are a few tips for getting started from our mental health experts.

There’s a fear of a life without the ability to ever drink or take drugs again. Staying sober means staying clean, and that alone can be a scary thought for many addicts and alcoholics. What’s going to happen when you step out of the residential rehab center and into life again? You may no longer be in some people’s lives because of your actions. However, another fear is the worry of not belonging anywhere. You may feel as though you don’t belong in a place of employment because you screwed up so badly.

Sobriety Fear #8: People won’t like the sober you.

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However, the word is duloxetine withdrawal timeline often used in different ways in different contexts. Many 12-step programs suggest that sobriety means total abstinence, which means never using the substance again. Other definitions, however, focus on the process of recovery and coping habits that support health and wellness over the long term.

Take a closer look at these feelings you may be having and what you can do about them right now. By Michelle PugleMichelle Pugle, MA is a freelance writer and reporter focusing on mental health and chronic conditions. As seen in Verywell, Healthline, Psych Central, Everyday Health, and Health.com, among kaiser drug treatment others. To begin, it can take several hours to sober up from alcohol. Then, the first few weeks of sobriety are when relapse risk is highest. Detox can occur in a hospital setting or as the first part of inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation.

What you do NOT want to do is let your fear about what MIGHT happen with your friends in the future dictate what you do to take care of yourself in the present. In my mind, sobriety meant Friday nights alone on my couch, watching Netflix and hiding from the rest of the world who was definitely out drinking. If you’ve spent the last umpteen years being THAT girl or guy, partying hard, struggling through the days hungover, and doing it all again – sobriety means an entirely new identity.

Sobriety Fear #2: Everything will change.

Maybe you feel more comfortable having the chat in the morning, so you have the rest of the day to decompress, or at night after you’ve finished your work day. For example, you may prefer to have a short, casual conversation (à la life update) or a more formal talk, depending on the person. And if you’re sharing with more than one person, conversations will likely vary in length, formality, content, and level of intimacy. You may even ask a trusted friend, partner, or recovery ally to facilitate or join you for the chat. Not everyone in your circle will necessarily be understanding of your situation.

If you’ve typically required a little social lubricant to lighten up at parties (as many of us have), navigating social scenes without liquid courage can be scary. This is particularly true for the introverted among us. You have to do what is best for you, and you can’t let your anxiety about a sober future prevent you from doing what you need to do. Besides, your current idea of fun usually involves holding your hair while you throw up discounted tacos and cheap margaritas. Sober movements are redefining what it means to have fun and challenging alcohol’s role in our social lives. Don’t expect to accomplish any big self-realizations in the beginning.

Are Your Parents to Blame for Your Addiction?

Leave it alone, give it time, and it will go away on its own. Besides, allowing the fear of failure to completely influence big decisions like this is a cop-out. It’s a dysfunctional version of “playing it safe.” You deserve better than that. What you’re really afraid of is the unknown and that you may be unable to handle it.

Participating in regular sessions can help you maintain focus on recovery and address any emerging issues before they become significant obstacles. A therapist who specializes in addiction and recovery can offer invaluable support. This might include providing strategies to manage fears related to sobriety and sensitively addressing underlying issues.

Eventually, you will have to decide who to keep in your life and who to let go. That’s not going to be easy, but the alternative is to continue slowly destroying the one life you’re given. Fears about sobriety are common, even for people who desperately seek it. 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 2020 study found potential benefits of combining in-person and online support methods.