What does it feel like to be sober your entire life?

When you’re addicted to drugs or alcohol, the prospect of being sober hardly seems like a good thing. People who rely on substances to feel better and to function cannot imagine living without them. In reality, however, being sober is actually the most wonderful state that anyone can experience. With sobriety, you have the power to always be in control of your thoughts, your actions, and your decisions. Rather than constantly worrying about when and how you’ll get your next drink or your next fix, you can again enjoy the people around you.

Sobriety also means being able to build a stable and sustainable future. Statistically, those who are able to successfully recover from addiction have a far lower likelihood of facing homelessness, joblessness, and overall financial distress. Sobriety also means being able to establish and maintain healthy relationships. Although drug and alcohol use often start as part of enjoyable, social experiences, they frequently leave people in isolation and force them to live incredibly lonely lives.

Like many people who suffer from substance use disorder, you’re probably tired of losing friendships and family members, missing out on job opportunities, and living to get high. By deciding to become sober and stay that way, you can completely change your entire existence. Read on to discover how.

There Will Come a Time When You No Longer Think About Drinking Alcohol

When you make a commitment to entering into drug or alcohol rehab, you’ll get the opportunity to see temptations and cravings for what they really are: temporary discomforts that you’re more than able to overcome. More importantly, you’ll experience these things less and less frequently as you learn and leverage new and healthier coping skills. Stress, sadness, and trauma from your past will eventually lose their ability to drive you to use. Before you’ve detoxed and had the opportunity to receive counseling and other treatment services, the idea of facing cravings can seem unbearable. With help and needs-specific support, you can move past this point so that sobriety feels less like torture and more like the freedom that it truly is. It may be that you’ve tried going “cold turkey” on your own. You may have even tried professional treatment in the past.

However, until you receive treatment that actually addresses your addiction at its source, you’re virtually guaranteed to struggle with sobriety and relapse. For some people, effective treatment includes having comorbidities or co-occurring disorders addressed. For instance, if you live with post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety, getting treatment for these things may be the help you need. Once these secondary issues are properly managed, you won’t have to rely on substances for self-treatment. For others, talking with therapists and working through past traumas and losses is essential. Rehab programs can address these and many other underlying issues that drive addictive behaviors.

Being Sober Will Rebuild Your Confidence

Shame and guilt are two emotions that make recovery especially hard. If you’re ashamed of the mistakes that you’ve made due to your addiction, you might feel as though there’s little point in getting well. Rehab programs work with their clients to help them unshoulder the tremendous burdens that guilt and shame represent. As you free yourself from addiction and start making positive and life-affirming choices, your confidence will grow. During this process, you’ll also learn how to avoid:

  • Unhealthy and toxic relationships
  • Environments that actually encourage addictive behaviors
  • Life habits that set the stage for temptation and cravings

Many drug and alcohol treatment centers recognize recovery as an ongoing process. The more that you work towards honoring and maintaining your sobriety, the easier it will invariably become. Before exiting treatment, patients are given referrals to sober living houses, relapse prevention services, and ongoing support services. With the right post-treatment help, you can continue enjoying the benefits of sobriety for the rest of your life.

Sobriety Feels Like Success

Even if you can hardly remember a time when you weren’t using drugs or alcohol, sobriety is guaranteed to feel like success. After all, this is the normal, natural state for your body to be in and to function in. When you’re sober, you won’t be undermining your health with harmful toxins, draining your energy, and creating chemical imbalances that lead to depression, mood swings, and other unpleasant developments.

You’ll be able to start setting goals for yourself, and can achieve them. You can begin rebuilding lost relationships and making new ones. Sobriety will even allow you to start working through many of the legal and financial issues that have resulted from your addiction. If you’re ready to experience just how good sobriety feels, we want to help. Get in touch with us today by calling 614-705-0611.