Most people with drinking problems are not able to change their habits overnight. In the early stages of alcohol addiction recovery, denial can be a huge obstacle. When you quit drinking alcohol, there isn’t any way around feeling like you’re missing something. 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. Lastly, whether enrolled in a formal treatment program or you’re still contemplating sobriety, you may benefit from mutual support groups as a part of your lifelong recovery process.
- Eating before, during, and after drinking can help slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.
- One 2020 study found potential benefits of combining in-person and online support methods.
- A person who is getting sober may be getting sober from one substance or all substances.
- One study found that 68% of people treated in a detox unit experienced moderate alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
Treatment should include medical and mental health services as required. Follow-up treatment typically includes community or recovery support systems, including family members. If you’re having the thought that you want to get sober and want to know how to get clean, there’s probably already an underlying brain changes associated with long-term ketamine abuse a systematic review pmc motivation. Drinking alcohol can create problems in every area of life, including your physical health, mental health, social life, work-life, and overall wellbeing. Make a list of the ways drinking has negatively impacted your life. You may want to reflect on this list when you feel cravings to drink.
Support groups can include 12-step meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or non-12-step groups like SMART Recovery, which has a more secular approach. Keep in mind that self-help strategies are helpful tools, but you may need additional help to remain sober long-term. A person who is getting sober may be getting sober from one substance or all john carter author at sober home substances. Their process of getting sober will depend on numerous factors, including the severity of drug or alcohol use disorder and long-term goals of sobriety. This article will describe sobriety in more detail, the challenges a person faces while working to stay sober, the options for treatment, and tips for building a sober lifestyle.
Identify Your Triggers
However, many factors, such as a person’s sex, medication use, and health, can affect intoxication and cause BAC to rise quicker and fall slower. If someone with a BAC level of 0.08 stops drinking, it will take roughly 6 hours for them to sober up. Sleep also helps restore the body’s ability to get alcohol out of the system. Alcohol intoxication is a temporary condition that can impair coordination, decision-making, impulse control, and other functions, which can increase the risk of harm. As such, people may want to sober up to lessen these effects and try to prevent a hangover.
Sitting in a room listening to sad stories, or reading a book from the 1940s, wasn’t part of my self-directed recovery and took away from my purpose in life. The traditional modalities didn’t represent that blueprint, so I moved on. Celebrating the hard work you have done in recovery is a great way to remain motivated.
By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website. Shame is having negative beliefs about yourself and your self-worth. People in recovery can experience a lot of shame simply for having become addicted in the first place.
The irony of this approach is that I often tried to drink away this fear to socialize more easily, and I arrogantly (and wrongly) believed that I was in control. As part of my commitment to change, I identified alcohol as the main problem and control it. This commitment puts the power back in your hands to decide if you ever want to drink again, but once you experience the great benefits, you probably won’t want to. Strong fears move you away from self-destructive behavior, while a strong why pushes you towards improving your life. For example, one of my worst habits was needing to have a drink in my hand. I tried to replace it with water, but it was too easy to drink quickly and lacked flavor.
A different way to get sober
Alcohol detox isn’t easy and not everyone can do it on their own. That difficulty is why alcohol detox and alcohol withdrawal treatment is administered by medical professionals at rehab facilities throughout the country. Alcoholism can affect the person struggling with it as well as their loved ones. However, it’s important to keep in mind that alcohol detox can be dangerous if it’s done at home. Detox at a professional rehab facility is typically the most recommended method for addressing alcohol addiction and dependence.
I know that I had several starts, stops, and bouts of questioning if this was the right decision for me. I personally used to worry that I wouldn’t be strong enough to stay sober. One common mistake for those who are new to alcohol and drug recovery is substituting a new compulsive behavior for their old one. People new to recovery can find themselves approaching their new diet, exercise program, job, and even participation in support groups with a compulsion that echoes addiction. If these emotions become excessive, they can hold you back from recovery. If you are trying to maintain a sober lifestyle, those feelings can become toxic and contribute to relapse if you don’t deal with them properly.
Early sobriety may come with feelings of fatigue and the stress of dealing with challenges (people, places, and things that stimulate the urge to use). It’s impossible to know how you’ll react and how your life will change when getting and staying sober. Typically, alcohol withdrawal symptoms happen for heavier drinkers. eight moms one house and a road map out of drug addiction Alcohol withdrawal can begin within hours of ending a drinking session. Many people are under the impression that detoxing from alcohol isn’t as dangerous as detoxing from other drugs. There are serious, potentially life-threatening risks involved with detoxing from alcohol—especially when you’re doing it on your own.
The Risks of At-Home Alcohol Detox and Withdrawal
You may not be completely ready to stop drinking or know exactly how to get sober from alcohol, but even just having the thought that you want to stop and need help is a good place to start. Staying sober requires a person to analyze the reasons why they were using the substance, identify their personal triggers for relapse, and avoid falling into a pattern of use again. They can help motivate a person to remain sober to reach the next milestone. The best way to sober up from excess alcohol drinking is to allow plenty of time, rest, and sleep. The suggested methods above may help a person feel and appear more alert but will not decrease blood alcohol levels in their body. For anyone with a family history of alcohol use disorder, there is a higher risk of also developing the condition.
Don’t do what doesn’t work
One thing that has kept me sober is that I no longer wanted to be the person I was as a drinker. I’m not just referring to how I behaved while under the influence, but my general demeanor, reputation, and options for life were all begging for a massive change. You also need a reason that will help keep you from having relapses, dealing with withdrawal, and staying committed to your goal of sobriety.
Is there a safe approach to drinking?
Whether your goal is long-term or short-term sobriety, this is the wrong mindset. A smart recovery strategy is to completely embrace a new identity as a person that does not drink. While admitting that you have a problem is the first step in many recovery programs, part of that process is realizing that you’re afraid. You might be afraid of what happens if you keep drinking, but you’re more afraid of what happens when you stop. 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.
However, the word is often used in different ways in different contexts. Many 12-step programs suggest that sobriety means total abstinence—never using the substance ever again. Relapse (using substances again after stopping) can and does happen, with 85% of people experiencing relapse at least once and half of them doing so within the first two weeks of sobriety. Depending on the timing of alcohol and consumption, alcohol levels can continue to rise during sleep and lead to alcohol poisoning.
When you’re detoxing in an inpatient or outpatient detox treatment facility, they’ll usually prescribe medications to help ease withdrawal symptoms of alcohol. But there are some vitamins and minerals you can take that are often beneficial and help remove toxins. Some of these include B vitamins, multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and calcium. By entering an alcoholism treatment program, you’ll benefit from medical care that addresses alcohol withdrawal and any underlying co-occurring disorders you have. When you think about getting sober, or are trying to help someone wanting to get sober, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) often springs to mind as a trusted means of recovery. Yet recent evidence suggests that less than 50 percent of people use that method of recovery today.