I finally got the courage to quit a career I did not enjoy and throw my weight behind exploring new avenues. There are few things more liberating than being outside on a Saturday morning, and NOT because you’re squinting in the sun on your walk of shame back to your car or home. The weekends always felt like they flew by, probably because at least one of those days would be spent in hangover agony. I’ve mentioned this in a previous post, but in case you missed it, did you know the average person spends TWO YEARS of their life hungover? But I know for damn sure that I am not throwing away cash like I was when I spent the equivalent of $400 USD per week on alcohol and cigarettes (liquor is expensive in the country where I live). I consumed both because I wanted to escape how bad I felt.
Sometimes being sober is boring because your life revolves around alcohol.
You have fewer cravings, and you’re not surrounded by temptations like bar food. Johnson described a moment when a pastor was calling people up to the stage who were in need of God’s love. Johnson made eye contact with Ortega, who was there with his family and shook his head. He didn’t want his two young sons to see him so vulnerable. In his mind, he was a proud warrior, fighting in the streets before and during his UFC career, and they were never to see him as soft or weak.
Types Of Drunks: How People React Differently To Alcohol
You have the power to make changes that will improve your life, make sobriety more interesting, and connect with awesome people who can help you enjoy your life in recovery. Your attempt at harm reduction with psychedelics sounds similar to how I attempted to replace my alcohol/cocaine use with weed. That wasn’t the first or last time I’d fail at moderation, either. I eventually learned it’s just not possible for me to partake normally, and it sounds like you feel similarly.
What Being Sober Feels Like
I’ve spent the last seven years researching and understanding alcoholism, addiction, and how people get sober. Additionally, I examine the way mental and physical health as well as our relationships with others impact the reasons people drink and their role in maintaining sobriety long-term. If your old habits included going to a friend’s house every Friday night, and that’s where your drug use began or where you abused alcohol, you’ll want to steer clear of this type of place. Keeping your promise to yourself to live a sober life sometimes means making difficult decisions about where you spend your time.
This is the part where you figure out how to enjoy life without a little something extra to help loosen you up. By focusing on eating healthy, nourishing foods, you are actively working on reversing those symptoms. If you have the time, sign on to a longer-term project like helping with this year’s charity bake sale or the big 5K race your city holds yearly. You’ll get to meet new people and be a part of something positive.
When you finally get over those first months of early sobriety, you’ll see that you’re not so bad after all. It was a horrible cycle of self-medicating my anxiety https://ecosoberhouse.com/ with alcohol which, in turn, only made my anxiety levels worse. I was stressed out all of the time and had no healthy coping mechanisms for that stress.
Once you do return to work, it’s important to create a budget and take steps to safeguard yourself as work stress can be a relapse trigger. Having a chaotic or disorganized lifestyle being sober sucks can also hinder your recovery. It’s important to develop a structured daily and weekly schedule and stick to it. Relapse rates for substance use addictions are around 40% to 60%.
- But also, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and get involved in activities around your community.
- Choosing a new hobby to occupy your time is not always easy.
- It all felt normal, even the terrible parts like awful hangovers and hangxiety.
Fried and overly sugary foods will also artificially spike your dopamine levels and cause your brain to overcorrect, leaving you feeling irritable, depressed, and cranky. These are all things you’re trying to overcome from drinking. Sobriety can actually lead to improved emotional regulation. Without alcohol to numb emotions, you can face and process feelings in a healthier way, leading to greater stability and fewer mood swings. A lot of people feel lonely when they give up alcohol. When your entire social life has revolved around getting wasted, it’s normal to feel like there’s nothing to do.
Alcohol artificially boosts serotonin and dopamine in your brain.
Sometimes I feel like sobriety’s Andy Rooney – the ironic, curmudgeon of the blogging set, pointing out the pitfalls and snafus that no one else will tell the world about quitting drinking. I have been known to sniff at the sophomoric crowing of those who extoll the benefits of living clean and sober. As if, like that other killjoy Groucho Marx, I do not want to join any club substandard enough to have me as a member. Finding happiness in sobriety is a process that takes time but is totally achievable with the right daily supports, priorities, and commitments. Healthy relationships, a regular practice of gratitude, finding your purpose, and living in the moment are some of the components of recovery that enrich the good feelings of sobriety.
Finding Happiness in Sobriety
- To unpack some of the underlying reasons you feel bored right now, it helps to understand what alcohol does to your brain.
- In this sense, recovery is a bit like falling in love with yourself and then learning how to love yourself—another feel-good aspect of being sober.
Acute anxiety and depression from the withdrawal process can ease within a few days to a week. But for many people, lingering feelings of anxiety, depression, and general malaise can last weeks, months, or even longer. Without alcohol, the brain starts to heal, gradually restoring the natural function of neurotransmitters responsible for mood regulation.
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