That includes talking about these fears, learning to understand what sobriety will mean to you, and facing what’s underneath it all. It’s important to remember that addiction can be treated but is rarely truly cured. You’ll face a variety of long-term struggles. You can expect to sometimes feel afraid, worried, unable to move forward, and downright unwilling to face what’s coming.
How to Cope with a Fear of Sobriety
Outpatient programs vary widely but typically provide a designated number of hours of treatment per week at a treatment center or facility. For more severe addiction issues, healthcare professionals may suggest inpatient care, which requires you to live onsite at the hospital or facility for the duration of treatment. Developing a structured routine can help a person stick to their sobriety goals, make healthy decisions, and reduce the likelihood of triggers and relapse. Establishing a routine with regular sleep and support group attendance can reduce stress and help you stay sober. Triggers for using drugs and alcohol typically are people, places, and things that remind you of your addictive behavior or encourage the use of substances you’re avoiding. Letting other people down is a common fear even if you don’t have close bonds with others.
- Not everyone comes from an encouraging and supportive home environment.
- Addiction can be a way to avoid the things we don’t want to deal with.
- Eventually, other people will know you have a problem.
- We use drugs to numb ourselves and our emotions and to push off thinking for another day.
- Then be prepared to work hard and to have setbacks.
- Her parallel lives of partying and reporting culminated in a life-altering moment at a Black Lives Matter protest that catalyzed the protracted and dramatic ending of her relationship.
- You can expect certain alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as sleep disruption to occur, though some people can experience seizures and other severe symptoms.
Sobriety Fear #11 You’ll never be able to fix your mistakes.
If you’re addicted to drugs or alcohol, you’ve likely used them to cope with difficult situations in your life. However, sobriety doesn’t mean you won’t be able to cope with life’s challenges. In fact, sobriety can help you to learn new and healthier ways to deal with difficult situations.
Sobriety Fear #9: You won’t be able to handle your feelings without alcohol.
- I’ve just come to feel intuitively that they’re the right rules.
- I still deal with anxiety after quitting drinking, and now I know that it can go away without Xanax.
- Removing the thing that they believe gives them more charisma or self-confidence around other people can trigger the very real worry that they won’t like their sober self.
And so then I could let out whatever it was that I was trying to manage and see if maybe it served some purpose in my life. Finding happiness in sobriety is a process that takes time but is totally achievable with the right daily supports, priorities, and commitments. fear of being sober 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. Finally, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to do this alone.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without Workit Health—they literally saved my life.”
Educate your family about your challenges and what you need from them so they know how to support you. Family therapy sessions can also be beneficial, helping to improve communication and resolve any underlying issues that may impact your sobriety. Support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART Recovery, or other local sobriety support groups offer a community of people who are going through similar challenges. These groups provide a platform to share experiences, gain insights, and receive unconditional support. 💙 Start this simple 30-day program on Mindfulness for Beginners to build this supportive habit into your daily life. Many people like to drink occasionally as a way to relax or socialize, but for others, the habit is rooted in anxiety and fear.
Common Fears in Addiction Recovery – and How to Face Them
You’ll know you will be taught the tools to prevent a relapse and to deal with one if you do relapse. I remember when I first got sober, I was concerned about giving up drugs and alcohol forever. The word forever held a great deal of weight. That meant that no matter what, no matter what I was going through, how bored I was, or how I was feeling, I had to completely abstain.
- One of the predominant reasons why getting sober is hard is because most people who get sober initially don’t want to.
- Sobriety seems like a lot of hard work, boring, and downright miserable—not to mention impossible.
- And don’t worry, your tastes and style are not actually tied to drugs.
- Within the safety and supports of a trusted rehab program and sober peer community, many people come to like and love the person they are when drugs and alcohol aren’t in the picture.
- Those early days of sobriety may leave you feeling hopeless.
Many addicts worry that withdrawals will be too painful to cope with. You may also doubt your ability to resist the urge to use again. If that’s you, no matter your level of addiction, you should consider doing an inpatient medical detox. For certain substances and levels of addiction, this is a medical necessity. For example, severe alcohol withdrawal can be deadly without medical treatment. But even if it’s not medically necessary, it can make a difference on getting you through the detox successfully.
In a medical detox, a specialized drug team will be with you all of the way. They will provide you with round-the-clock care and supervision, ensuring that your physical and mental health is in good shape. Also, your treatment center’s team will be able to provide https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you with the most effective medication to help you manage your withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms can sometimes be intense, but with the right kind of treatment, you will find it much more manageable to deal with withdrawals than you imagined.
If this is the case for you, you may want to dig deeper. You’re not obligated to drink just to make others feel good about their drinking. So don’t allow anyone to make you feel that way. This is the hard part, but it’s also the most rewarding. When you do start to deal with your problems in healthier ways (and you will), you are going to feel completely transformed and unstoppable. You will have strong days when you feel like you can take on the world.
