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But for most people, staying sober isn’t that straightforward. The more strategies you learn to identify triggers, cope with stress, and manage your new sober life, the easier it is to prevent relapse. If you’ve cut out other substances along the way, you may prefer describing your journey as living “clean” rather than just sober. For most, living clean and living sober are synonyms. Even if you are one who manages to make it to work each day, in spite of addiction, chances are good that time is lost once you get back home.
- For example, those with depression often have lower levels of endorphins.
- You get to discover what you like, what you don’t like, and what you want your life to be like.
- In fact, drug and alcohol abuse can cause mental and emotional health issues that did not exist prior to using.
- It’s easy to down a lot of empty calories with just a few drinks.
- The longer a person is caught up in addiction, the more damage that addiction will do to their life.
When you’re suffering from addiction, your only concern is to get more substances. As a result, you neglect your physical appearance and personal hygiene. Therefore, living a sober life will improve your appearance.
You have more fun.
When active in your addiction, you might be physically present… but you will never fully be there. Leaving addiction in the dust is extremely empowering. Having the self-control to determine your course in life is fundamental to the human experience. This is why people who maintain their sobriety report higher levels of personal satisfaction. There is a strong link between mental illness and substance use disorders.
- The sober curious movement has gained steam recently, such as with the rise of interest in “Dry January” — a time when participants decide to not drink for the month of January.
- One day when I wasn’t too high I saw my youngest one crying and the oldest trying to comfort her, trying to be the parent.
- Acknowledging and celebrating the hard work of recovery is helpful for keeping you motivated and reminding you why you took this brave step toward sobriety in the first place.
- Drinking may calm you down, but the truth is that its effects don’t last forever, and you are still losing the ability to experience and regulate emotions properly.
Being a sober woman leaves you feeling fulfilled, centered, and in control. Furthermore, when you stop giving any time at all to the physical dysfunction of a hangover, your body starts to feel vibrant and energetic. I sleep well, I feel strong, and I have more sustained energy. Another reason to stay sober and clean is, Having a drug problem can be detrimental to your finances in many ways. When addiction directs your life, you come to work late and miss deadlines.
Reasons Why Being Sober Is the Best Choice You’ll Ever Make
“If you want to maintain the friendship, see a movie or do an activity with them that does not involve alcohol,” says Hafeez. “The goal is not to isolate and to socialize in environments where there is no temptation to drink because alcohol is not served or part of the equation,” explains Hafeez. “Exercise will boost mood and decrease anxiety reasons to be sober and depression. It’s also a great way to meet people in a sober environment,” says Hafeez. For example, if you value being an effective and helpful employee at work, how does alcohol get in the way of that? You might notice that alcohol negatively affects your sleep and leads to fatigue the next day, which impacts your performance at work.
So, just for me, try on the idea that if giving up alcohol has crossed your mind…you’re not meant to be average. You’re not meant to be a run-of-the-mill party girl or wine mom or whatever meme society has tried to sell you on. You are meant to be the most extraordinary, joyful, self-expressed version of yourself…and she’s hiding under the hazy veil that alcohol has created. In case you’re new here, I’m choosing to use the phrase “Sober By Choice” in this article because I’m fortunate that sobriety wasn’t a life-or-death situation for me. I wasn’t navigating the world of physical addiction or experiencing the “rock bottoms” society has taught us is the prerequisite to quitting booze. Alcoholism strips people of their ability to be trusted, seeing as they will go to any lengths to continue supporting their habit.
The sooner you quit, the more money you will save.
But, when you become sober, you get to have all the time that you would have normally used to obtain substances while suffering from addiction. With all this newfound time, you can change your life for the better. Addiction and mental health issues often come hand-in-hand. For example, those with depression often have lower levels of endorphins.
- At this point, your emotions may be all over the place.
- Marijuana users are also more likely to live with schizophrenia, and experience paranoia and hallucinations.
- The good news is that in treatment and recovery, we learn effective steps to rebuild relationships and repair the damage to our reputations.
Really, what it did was mask my depression, from which I suffered for 17 years. Alcohol was a band-aid but any happiness I thought it brought me was fleeting. So yes, not only is being sober more fun but, most importantly, you can find actual joy when alcohol is not in your life. In the long run, that is so fulfilling that happiness and fun will soon be found in unexpected places. The best way forward for your recovery from alcohol or substance use is to incorporate a wide variety of strategies that will help foster success.
You Want to Live.
If you continue drinking heavily, you could do permanent damage. The last reason to stay sober is, Just because a few rock stars are living to a ripe old age despite their pasts of excessive drug use doesn’t mean most other people will. In fact, long-living individuals who continue to use abuse drugs and alcohol are an exception to the rule. Under certain conditions, alcohol can negatively affect our bodies and personal relationships. However, in today’s culture, drinking alcohol is often encouraged in social settings, which can lead to becoming reliant on it and, in some cases, dependent on it.