Tips for Staying Sober During the Holidays
Ignoring triggers leaves you more susceptible to their influence in recovery, and allows them to maintain power over you. Tell them how you are feeling about the upcoming holiday and ask if you can call them if you feel in danger of relapsing. If you are in recovery, especially if you’re newly sober, this might be difficult to be around.
Your Support Team is here for support during your sober holiday
For individuals who have spent the past year surrounded by sober peers, having to spend this concentrated time home and with those who may not truly understand or respect their sobriety process may be stressful. Heading into the New Year can also be a time of reflection and even sadness about which direction life is going and which milestones a person believes they should have already reached. The pandemic has added another layer of challenges during https://ecosoberhouse.com/ the holiday season this year.
Find Joy in the Journey: Strategies for Sober Holidays
- Our hope is merely to capture the spirit of the fellowships, and to approach people with the language they commonly use to describe the disease of addiction.
- Remember, it’s okay to retreat to an earlier Recovery Zone for a few weeks.
- “There’s a lot of free time that can lead to chaos of the mind,” Rollins said.
There are plenty of sober holiday traditions that you and your loved ones can create together to strengthen your recovery. Instead of dreading the onset of a holiday, spend the time planning, thinking through possible outcomes, and what to do in response. “Take the lead in planning nonalcoholic activities, whether that’s taking a hike, canoeing, or something else active that doesn’t give you time to have an alcoholic beverage in hand,” she suggested. We Love Lucid, which launched in 2019, and Hooked, founded in 2021, are among the alcohol-free tour operators that have debuted in recent years. It is most important to find the right balance for your individual needs during the holiday season.
Which Holidays Are Tough For People In Recovery?
The rise of sober travel comes amid changing attitudes around alcohol and its effects. When you take the opportunity to connect with others—to see, value and honor their experience—you exercise empathy. You exist outside of yourself, and you begin to notice all the blessings your life already contains. In the U.K., “Drinking is like breaking bread,” Holland said.
How Can I Support My Loved One in Recovery?
This can be helpful in times of stress, where you may find yourself struggling to think clearly or rationally about how to cope with urges to drink alcohol sober holidays or use drugs. Making it through the holidays without slipping back into destructive drug or drinking habits is possible. It is also a fun night for many adults, who may celebrate by throwing a party that involves drinking alcohol or using drugs. Feelings of loneliness can be triggering for people in recovery, even if they have a solid social support system.