As someone who’s navigated the challenges of sobriety for many years, I understand the complexities that the holiday season can bring. In our recent episode of the Addiction Help Podcast, we explored several strategies for staying sober during these times. Let’s delve deeper into these strategies and share insights from my journey and our podcast discussions. For some people in recovery, the holidays can be tough. But you can make it to January with your sobriety intact. You don’t have to let unfulfilled expectations, stressful family dynamics, or crazy in-laws threaten your recovery.
National Recovery + Wellness Month
- Over the past 15 years, Chris has worked as a tireless advocate for addicts and their loved ones while becoming a sought-after digital entrepreneur.
- Given the season, we are going to explore 10 strategies for staying stable and sober through the holidays.
- The holidays can be an incredibly stressful time for anyone, especially those struggling with a substance use disorder or mental health condition.
- But for many people, “celebrating” also means imbibing copious amounts of their favorite alcoholic holiday beverage.
- Enlisting a loved one (or a few!) to offer support is key.
Blinking or just shifting in your chair can remind you that you are o.k. It can break the trance and get you unstuck from feeling like you’re trapped, you’re in danger, or you can’t take care of yourself. Give yourself props every time https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you make an outreach call, head to a meeting, read recovery literature, say a slogan and rest. In that time, Julie’s brother-in-law, who always arrives under the influence of drugs, drinks too much and starts arguments.
How To Celebrate The Holidays While Staying Sober
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Gottman Relationship Adviser
Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, meals on wheels or other volunteer organizations can use extra help all year, especially around the holidays. It’s important to protect yourself and your wellness throughout the holiday season. Here are a few tips that may help you redirect thinking and control urges to use during the holidays. The truth is other people have the ability to take care of themselves.
Don’t expect your family to instantly offer you the support you need. When the holidays get busy, it’s tempting to skip meetings, counseling appointments, and outreach calls. Stay connected to recovery, even if it’s less than normal. Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and other 12-step recovery groups put extra meetings into place either in person or over the phone during the holidays. Al-Anon, for instance, offers meetings every hour on the hour over the phone on major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Choosing Sobriety Together
If you use alcohol to cope, you may find that underlying grief, trauma, or anxiety can start to surface. Negotiate how to support each other’s needs for healthy coping and daily self-care. Find a Gottman Method-trained therapist near you. Holidays bring a mix of joy and stress, often intensified for those in recovery. The prevalence of alcohol in festivities can be a trigger for many.
- Therefore, if drinking alcohol was the way in which an alcoholic coped emotionally with holidays in past years- it can be a difficult transition when they get sober.
- The Adviser uses the legendary scientific Gottman Method to help you understand what’s really going on in your relationship—and gives you exactly what you need to improve it.
- Be willing to go to any lengths for your sobriety so you don’t have to go back to your addiction.
- Laura got sober in the month of December, just 16 days before Christmas.
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- Then you can break down those defensive walls and forgive other people, and you can approach the holiday season with a stronger sense of gratitude.
In this case, put things into place to make the situation as easy as possible. One newly recovering alcoholic wrote AA slogans on index cards and kept them in her purse. When she needed a break, she locked the bathroom door and took five minutes to get quiet and read a slogan. Make a new holiday tradition by scheduling a massage for the day after. Not to mention the fact that alcohol is flowing freely almost everywhere you go.
Then as you look around the room, describe three things you like. Next, try asking people sober holidays questions and focus on really staying present. In this age of distractions, people crave undivided attention. Your genuine interest is a gift they will remember. For some, it’s a slippery slope between drinking casually and using it as a coping mechanism.
- In our recent episode of the Addiction Help Podcast, we explored several strategies for staying sober during these times.
- In the end, the humility you gain will only strengthen your recovery.
- Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) is indicated for the treatment of opioid dependence in adults.
- I want to share with you a list of six ways that you can deal with sobriety during the holidays.
- Or maybe you’ll investigate online meetings now, before anything happens, so you can go to a meeting at a moment’s notice.
- You don’t have to wait until you’re triggered.
If you know Cousin Sadie is going to grill you about rehab, avoid her. If Uncle Brian is going to mix you a stiff drink, stay away from him. If the office New Year’s party is really all about drinking or other drug use, make a brief appearance or don’t attend. It’s unrealistic in all of these scenarios to say, “I can soldier through it.” That’s what Step One of the Twelve Steps teaches us, right?
- To get started on your recovery journey, contact a treatment provider to learn more about your options.
- You don’t have to let unfulfilled expectations, stressful family dynamics, or crazy in-laws threaten your recovery.
- The biggest gift that you can give to yourself and your loved ones is that of sobriety.
- For some people in recovery, the holidays can be tough.
- Maybe going to some meetings while you’re celebrating the holiday season isn’t asking too much.
Brief them on what you’re going through and what you hope to achieve this holiday season. They can help make sure you stay on track, and be ready to offer some extra support whenever you need it. Remember, it is always easier to stay sober than to have to get sober. Protecting your recovery and sobriety is worth it, even if its hard, inconvenient, or uncomfortable. Make this your most important focus over the holidays and everything else will work out just fine.