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Regularly remind yourself of the positive changes that sobriety has brought to your life. Whether it’s improved health, better relationships, or greater productivity, focusing on these benefits can motivate you to maintain your sober lifestyle. Read books, listen to podcasts, and follow blogs that focus on recovery and sober living. This knowledge of benefits and challenges can empower you and reduce anxiety and alleviating fear by framing sobriety as a positive lifestyle change. The fear of being sober usually has a mixture of root causes, including the discomfort of facing underlying emotional or psychological issues without the numbing effect of substances. It may also encompass concerns about how to cope with stress and social situations soberly if one does not feel they have the proper emotional tools to regulate the nervous system.
What Is Evidence-Based Addiction Therapy?
The good news is that you don’t have to worry about it until you’ve got some solid, sober days under your belt. So understanding and addressing these fears is paramount. According to Merriam-Webster, being sober simply means abstaining from alcohol and drugs. Though some people are sober for their entire lives, others may have sober episodes of a few years, months, or even days. “Advanced Moderation.” My program of recovery rewarded anyone who stayed sober for 30 days with both a chip and a 30-day furlough to go out and drink like a civilized human again.
What are the Stats On Rehab and Recovery?
One thing I’ve learned in my seven and a half years in recovery is that we all have fear, and we all overcome those fears, instead choosing recovery. What I know from this side of the fence is that life in recovery gives us everything that we had looking for at the bottom of a bottle. Fear of recovery not working and that you will return to use is real. In fact, for many of us returning to use is a reality of recovery. By its very nature, substance use disorder is referred to as a relapsing condition.
- The flipside of the fear of failure is the fear of success.
- Substances often serve as a way to numb emotional pain, whether it’s past trauma, anxiety, depression, or everyday stress.
- Plenty of sober activities can be just as fun as drinking or using drugs.
- Many professionals can help you through the process of becoming sober.
- Try taking up hobbies that make you happy, like art, music, or sports.
- Utilize your journal as you try out new things to reflect on how the experiences made you feel.
It’s Time to Talk About Your Worries
Being afraid to better your own life for fear of what others will say about you is a common yet inane fear. If getting sober is going to make your life better (and trust us, it always does) you should not be concerned with the opinions of others. When your life no longer revolves around getting high or drunk, your life will become the opposite of boring. Think of the routine that you have gotten into, always going out and drinking or drugging with the same people, usually at the same location (or one of a few local hot spots). When you get sober, you free up time in your life to partake in and enjoy new sober activities that go much farther in the way of improving your quality of life.
Fear of Sobriety
If you don’t have anything that jumps out at you, think about what you enjoyed doing as a child and find a way to begin again. Severe withdrawal cases may include suicidal thoughts, in which case you should seek professional help immediately. 💙 Awaken your potential by exploring the world around you and developing interests outside of substances by Saying Yes to Life. I failed more times than I can count before I finally got it right, and I assure you there is nothing special about me that you can’t find within yourself. You don’t have to produce some hidden, superhuman strength to be successful at sobriety. But you do need patience, empathy for yourself, and a firm commitment to meeting your goal.
Are You Afraid to Be Sober? Common Fears You’ll Face Through Recovery
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. Don’t let difficult decisions and conversations with loved ones be the excuse you use to keep drinking alcohol.
After that 30-day initiation proving that you can successfully handle wine with dinner and beer at ballgames, you come back and begin 60 days of abstinence. This all sounds well and good until you add up the math and realize that no part of this is anywhere close to sobriety. It’s not that I’m isolating and feeling depressed or anything. I’m feeling otherwise motivated with life, sociable with friends, starting a new course in horticulture, exercising and meditating twice a day. I’m doing all the “good” stuff and feeling great about it. October is notorious for ghouls, goblins, and ghosts galore—all things that scare us and can make sleeping at night a daunting task.
Are There Negative Effects to Stopping Drinking Cold Turkey?
- SHAFA HOME, offers luxury, residential rehab for all forms of addiction.
- Our hopes and dreams may have gotten stuffed down along the way during our descent into drugs or alcohol, too.
- As dark as drug and alcohol abuse may be, it is the devil an abuser knows and thus, they do not fear it the way they do sobriety, a new way of being with antithetical principles.
- Many people are able to continue enjoying parties with others who might be drinking without trouble.
Jeanette Hu, AMFT, based in California, is a former daily drinker, psychotherapist, and Sober Curiosity Guide. She supports individuals who long for a better relationship with alcohol, helping them learn to drink less without living less. Sober living home People who’ve been raised in unsupportive or invalidating environments often experience low self-esteem. Depression is often a product of substance abuse as well. Self-destructive narratives can rise from these circumstances, which is why community and therapy in combination are so important. In time, you will find that you are deserving of happiness just the same as anyone else.
