4 Things You Can do Today to Maintain Your Sobriety

We all know that maintaining sobriety is not easy. There are many temptations out there to relapse and succumb to addiction, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

There are things you can do today that will help maintain your sobriety and keep you on the path of recovery, such as going to a drug rehab like Divinity Recovery, understanding your triggers, knowing how to deal with withdrawal symptoms, identifying relapse indicators, among other things.

What’s more, you’ll feel better in body and mind for doing these four small tasks; they may seem like nothing at first blush, but you will be thankful down the line for following them.

Prepare For Withdrawal Symptoms  

One of the most difficult things for a person who is attempting to maintain their sobriety to do is to understand their emotions. For example, one tip, later on, is to know your triggers which require acute emotional awareness. Emotional awareness is also required when preparing for withdrawal symptoms.

Many people don’t expect withdrawal symptoms to be as bad as they are, and often don’t understand the various negative emotions being experienced when in that process. 

Common mood-related symptoms include irritability, anxiety, lethargy, fatigue, depression, and more. It’s very important to prepare to experience these emotions and have steps in place to alleviate the symptoms, as well as the ability to distinguish between mood-related withdrawal symptoms, triggers, and normal responses to situations. 

Know Your Triggers    

Perhaps one of the most important things you should do to prevent a relapse, and maintain your sobriety, is to know what triggers your addiction. These triggers will vary from person to person. A trigger can be anything from a place to a person, situation, or a thing that creates a craving that is linked to the use of a substance. 

If you aren’t sure what your triggers are then you should pay close attention to how you are feeling when dealing with certain people, being in certain places or situations, or your reactions to certain things. A few common triggers include financial problems, situational cues, stress, relationship issues, people who are still consuming, and more. 

Have a Schedule     

As mentioned above, one of the triggers that many people experience that causes difficulty in maintaining sobriety is stress. Stress can often be caused by a disorganized lifestyle that causes chaos, such as waking up at any time of the day, going to bed extremely late, not noting down appointments, grocery lists, finding time to exercise, and more. 

An easy way to combat this is to create a detailed schedule for each day, set times to wake up, go to sleep, exercise, see friends and family or even just walk the dog. Knowing what you are going to be doing throughout the day, and knowing what you have planned not only minimizes undue stress, it also removes excess time.

More than this, it helps you to avoid old habits since you are planning exactly what you are doing throughout the day, and old habits are a quick way to undermine the progress of maintaining sobriety. 

If you have too much time on your hands and nothing to do with it, then you are going to feel bored, have time to dwell on your fears and anxieties, and have nothing to distract you from the negative emotions experienced from withdrawal. 

Have a Support Group    

As mentioned above, since most people don’t expect withdrawal symptoms to be as severe as they sometimes are, many people don’t have a support group or support system in place and are left to suffer through the emotions alone. This goes without saying that it’s not a great idea and does not aid in maintaining sobriety. One of the very first things you should do is create a support system and find a support group. 

Your support system can be anyone from close friends to family, anyone who can listen to how you are feeling and provide constructive criticism, advice, and understanding.

Your support group should be a safe place where you can go to talk about how you are feeling with people who understand the position you are in and provide support and encouragement. Knowing that you are not alone is a great comfort within itself. 

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