Every single day, and every minute of every day, your number one goal when in early sobriety is remaining sober. As you gain more time under your belt and your progress, staying sober will begin to feel like second nature and you will be able to focus more on living your life and regaining control of it. But you cannot forget why and how you have made it as far as you have. When you are having an off day or feeling down and do not feel like you have what it takes to keep pushing forward, especially in early sobriety, it is vital to remind yourself of the reasons you should remain sober.
Why You Should Remain Sober No Matter What
Addiction will have a tight grasp on you. It will take charge of the way you think and how you act. The drugs that you took for so long have changed the way your brain in ways that make quitting and remaining sober after that much harder. As much as you want to stay sober, the temptations, emotions, and cravings can be enough to drag you back out, even when you know it is a bad idea. Remember that you are better than the addiction that held you down for so long. Remaining sober is not easy, but it is entirely possible. The key is to recognize that there are reasons to live your life sober. Maybe you need some help identifying or need to be reminded of them to get you through another day.
- You have goals for your future that you can only attain if you are sober. Getting and staying sober allows you to follow your dreams. Staying sober gives you an even greater chance of actually reaching them. Drugs and addiction will hold you back from so much in life; more than you know. Maybe your plans are to get married and start a family or land that dream job you have always wanted. Whatever it may be, these reasons are enough to remain sober. No matter how much you feel otherwise, getting high or drunk again will never solve your problems, it will only make your future impossible to get to.
- Drinking or using drugs will not fix anything for you. While it may seem so tempting to pick up the bottle or the drug when things are going wrong for you, the thing to remember is that putting those substances in your body won’t fix anything in the long run. Yeah, you might be able to forget about those problems for a moment, but when the drugs are gone you are right back where you started or even worse. Using only compounds the problem it does not fix it. Rather than ruining your sobriety over life’s problems, direct that energy into something constructive that will help you fix it healthily.
- You have already put so much time and effort into staying sober. Why throw it away now? Whether it is 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year you have already put so much of your energy towards this to throw it away now. Why would you want to start back at square one again? Instead of throwing away your sobriety, think about the coping mechanisms you have learned during your time in sobriety to help get you through it. The odds are that tomorrow the problem you are dealing with now will not seem nearly as difficult as they did, and you will still have your sobriety.
Do Not Give in to Cravings or Triggers
No matter what impulses, triggers, or cravings you have that is telling you to turn back to drugs or alcohol during a hard time, it is important to remember why remaining sober is so important to you. Remind yourself that these substances never solved your problems or helped you, it just added to them. Take the much-needed time to think through your impulses before you act on them you will thank yourself later.
