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Even elephants in the wild have been observed eating fermented fruit to get intoxicated. One of the things that I truly loved about substances was that they gave me an escape; an escape from my problems, an escape from my incessant worrying, an escape from reality. When I got sober, I didn’t miss the actual substances or the craziness that existed in my life as a direct result of abusing them, but I did miss the escape. And at nearly 5 years sober, sometimes I still do. ” It’s just more, I’m feeling a bit of sobriety-chat burnout. I just want to be normal and happy and talk about normal shit, like what books I’m reading, etc.
I have amazing relationships, I have a life with meaning, I have an active spiritual life. I don’t have that much sex, and that’s more like me saying, I no longer lower my standards and sleep with just anyone because of beer goggles. There’s no easy pass for me anymore, no more getting drunk and slipping past the part where you get to know each other.
If You Hate Being Sober Make A People Or Animal Plan
- When you remove alcohol from your life, you free up all the time you spent drinking and recovering from drinking.
- Not exactly, but it can make you feel better, which has a ripple effect on whether or not you enjoy your life.
- While making the decision to be sober was the best thing I’ve ever done, it’s also one of the hardest.
- The longer you stay away from alcohol and give your brain some much-needed TLC, the less you’ll feel like life is dull and uninteresting.
- You will have days when you don’t necessarily make the strongest choices to improve your well-being or strengthen your recovery.
To view it, please log in to confirm your age.By continuing, you also agree that use of this site constitutes acceptance of Reddit’s User Agreement and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy. I wrote about some of my difficulties in sobriety last year, in a post called The Worst Parts of Sobriety. I was inspired to revisit the topic after reading a recent post by Heather Lowe, called Sober is Boring and I Have Lost Friends. When we rely too much on one source of enjoyment, it can take up more space than we ever intended—crowding out other experiences, shrinking our world, and limiting who we can become. Now, I get to live and act in the specificity of truth, thanks to some of the camaraderie and friendships I’ve found in both AA and Adult Children of Alcoholics. Instead, buck up and remember what’s in your control.
Understand sober curiosity and why more people are choosing to drink less.
Here’s how to stay sober, and sane, when life sucks. They can feel overwhelming and like they will never end. Even if you are making one small choice to improve how you feel each day, like working out more or eating better, track it.
You Hate Being Sober When You Have To Create A New Lifestyle
I just can’t be bothered to talk about my sobriety. It’s not that I’m isolating and feeling depressed or anything. I’m feeling otherwise motivated with life, sociable with friends, starting a new course in horticulture, exercising and meditating twice a day. I’m doing all the “good” stuff and feeling great about it.
- Spend time focused on someone other than yourself and your own situation won’t seem so bad.
- She believed that, even after decades of recovery, some people were “still messed up and acting out their issues.”
- We are stressed-out, overstimulated, tech-obsessed creatures.
- It’s a subversive, hardcore choice to take your life into your own hands.
- After that 30-day initiation proving that you can successfully handle wine with dinner and beer at ballgames, you come back and begin 60 days of abstinence.
My social circle changed when I got sober because I realized that many of my relationships were based on getting drunk together, and that was it. When you remove alcohol from your life, you free up all the time you spent drinking and recovering from drinking. If you ever sit down to do that math, you will shock yourself with how much time went towards drinking. Our brains don’t like imbalance and will work very hard to correct it. That overcorrection is what you’re probably feeling right now.
I don’t think anyone has ever loved me as much as my rescue dog does. I stopped drinking at the end of 2016 and have stayed sober ever since. I regularly blog about sobriety and normally choose to focus on the benefits I’ve experienced since quitting drinking. That’s because sobriety has been overwhelmingly a positive experience for me.
Things That Inevitably Happen to Your Personal Life When You Get Sober
This can be hard if your social life previously revolved around drinking. It’s even harder if your loved ones don’t support your sobriety. On the one hand, you have no idea what you’re supposed to do with yourself. A lot of people don’t feel good when they first get sober, so it’s totally understandable if your feelings are all over the place.
Alcohol merely blurred my perception of social situations. It’s hard to fill that time, especially when dealing with alcohol cravings and triggers. To unpack some of the underlying reasons you feel bored right now, it helps to understand what alcohol does to your brain. When the smallest things could mesmerize you? From being outside sweaty, running around and playing with bugs in the mud, to laughing at farts (I still do that) and wrestling with your friends.
I got out of debt, started a company that provides digital recovery, launched a podcast, and am in the middle of writing a book. Volunteering is a great way to reconnect with your community. Helping others actually boosts our own mental health and feelings of self-worth. Plus, it Alcoholics Anonymous helps us with our emotional sobriety and wellness. Early sobriety is a critical period when community and support networks are critical.
How To Taper Off Alcohol Risks of Quitting Alcohol Cold Turkey
I’m freaking out and I really don’t want to relapse but it’s getting harder not to. There are plenty of negative elements to getting sober too. And, although I absolutely believe that the positives outweigh the negatives, I also think that it’s essential that those of us who are sober talk about the bad parts too.
But I’m also going to say something else that might not be what other people in recovery want to put out there, but what I have found in my experience to be completely true. It’s seen as normal to drink, and quitting that drug can feel like breaking a social pact. So your bold, life-improving decision to not drink will mean changes almost everywhere you look. Here are some surprising (and not-so-surprising) occurrences that will inevitably happen to your relationships, your identity, even your free time, and how I’ve learned to deal with each one. Once you know what you’re struggling with, and have some ideas of how to deal with it, give yourself a realistic timeline.