Party Season … it can be a Toxic and unhealthy Environment for all us Addicts
Picture driving along in a car and you reach a fork in the road. You can go left or right and you cannot turn around once you make a decision. The road on the left loops you around back to this point, after a few potholes and a series of horrible and unnecessary turns. The one on the right is the road of your future, filled with forests and beautiful towns and colours and little streams.
The road on the left is relapse and bad decisions and will lead you back to the start of the journey.
The road on the right is the stay sober good decision and it is your future. This is essentially how you should view life after addiction. Going left is the road you don’t want to go down, going right is the road you should be travelling on. Once you make a commitment to stay sober and recover from drugs and alcohol, you must also make a commitment to remove yourself from the people, places, and things that once accompanied your drug and alcohol use. They are the people telling you to go left and you really don’t want their advice anymore.
To Stay Sober can be quite the challenge especially if you happen to live with someone who is still active in their addiction. What you need to realise is that you will need to make adjustments and that you can do things even in the most difficult circumstances to reinforce recovery. When a person accepts the reality of their addiction, recovery becomes a comfort in any environment, even if a healthy living space is not available at the time. So despite you thinking that there may only be one road choice- I have news for you-you can still turn right and stay sober in an unhealthy environment, and this is how:
Change your behaviors to stay sober:
- Don’t talk about things which romanticize drug use.
- Change your mode of living in any healthy way possible. ( run in the morning if you didn’t before)
- If posters, music or objects were around while you were going through addiction, change them to something positive.
- If friends or family members are using in front of you and you don’t like it or cannot stand it –get out. Find a private space and call someone in recovery to help you stay grounded until you can find another place to go.
- Learn to exercise.
- Breathing is an essential part of stress reduction (stress is a major trigger for relapse.)
- Keep reading material about recovery. Take inspiration from others.
- Take advantage of today’s technology. (There are ongoing recovery groups on social media and you can remain anonymous).
Research has shown that the first month of attempting to stay sober and be in recovery is the most difficult however there is an upside! It’s called the “Pink Cloud” effect because of the joy of new found freedom from chemical dependency and the release of endorphins that were absent due to chemical poisoning. Build a foundation for yourself to remain clean and sober. Understanding the damage that addiction causes to your mind, body and soul are vital in helping stay clean and sober. Addiction is permanent and will not go away over time.
If you have an addiction and you return to the drugs or alcohol, you will always end up back where you started. If you stay the course stay sober and remain free from drugs and alcohol – you will live a full and meaningful life.
For more information on dealing with alcohol abuse and getting yourself into rehab to start a new life, call Houghton House now:
office hours: 011 787 9142
24/7 emergency help line: 079 770 7532
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