Most Common Reasons People are Afraid to Get Sober

I realized that sobriety was not fundamentally boring. Alcohol merely blurred my perception of social situations. 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.

How to Get Sober and Stay Sober

Are you considering cutting out alcohol or drugs from your life? Sobriety is more than just abstaining from substance use, it’s a lifestyle that can bring about various benefits. Whether from drugs or alcohol, the benefits of becoming sober are often fear of being sober overshadowed by fear about what life will be like when all the mind-altering substances and parties have stopped. Getting sober also means you have to admit that you have a substance abuse problem, which for many people is scary enough in itself.

They are Afraid Life Will Be Boring

If you didn’t want to change, you wouldn’t bother to get sober. It’s the whole, “You mean I can never drink ever again?! ” Let your brain marinate on words like forever, and you’ll set yourself right up for failure.

How to Get Sober

  • Post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) involves withdrawal symptoms that persist past the detox period.
  • Taking Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) with other opioid medicines, benzodiazepines, alcohol, or other central nervous system depressants can cause breathing problems that can lead to coma and death.
  • I think many people make this assumption before they even try sobriety.

It’s likely your doctor will order some bloodwork, which can be the start of your path to physical recovery. I over-identified with every negative feeling in my body. I’ve included this separate from hobbies because I don’t believe that journaling is a hobby. We are stressed-out, overstimulated, tech-obsessed creatures. Pile on some sobriety struggle, and it’s a recipe for madness. I found myself planning little outings when I got sober because I needed to figure out what it meant to have fun again.

Most Common Reasons People are Afraid to Get Sober

Unfortunately, it is these fears (and more) that often stop addicts from getting the help and treatment that they need to stop using. Mostly, we are in a great amount of pain and change is our only option. For me, I was terrified because I knew no other way to be. Alcohol was part of my identity and anything different seemed impossible. I didn’t want to admit that I might not have this drinking thing under control like I thought I did for so long. But it was hard for me to see that while I was in the thick of my addiction.

  • Depending on the type of dependency, PAWS can last from six months to two years after you stop using drugs or alcohol.
  • Alcohol robs you of the ability to feel naturally motivated and inspired.
  • Fear is the biggest barrier to change, even if that change is for the better and will improve our lives.
  • It wasn’t until she found a packed meeting on a Friday night, with peers she’d typically be parting with, that she hoped she’d found her place.

When I drank alcohol, I could (and did) sit and do nothing for hours. My friends and I got together for happy hours after work. It all felt normal, even the terrible parts like awful hangovers and hangxiety. It’s why nothing seems fun or exciting, and you struggle to motivate yourself to have a good time. Financial limitations are one of the major barriers that prevent people from receiving treatment. Even though many barriers remain, some encouraging signs point to treatment becoming more within reach for populations who have struggled to find recovery help in the past.

One study found that 68% of people treated in a detox unit experienced moderate alcohol withdrawal symptoms. You can expect certain alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as sleep disruption to occur, though some people can experience seizures and other severe symptoms. One thing that all addicts have in common when starting recovery is that they are often afraid of the process. But in the majority of cases, the loss of inhibitions is not a good thing. Just because you will no longer get wasted and make poor decisions – this does not make you boring. Whether you have one day sober or 10 years, recovery presents challenges.

Sobriety Fear #4: You’ll actually succeed.

Sobriety is a general term for staying away from mood- and mind-altering substances, though there is no commonly agreed-upon medical definition in terms of what sobriety means. People in recovery generally agree that abstinence is necessary but remains just a starting point for a new, sober life. https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alternatives-to-alcohol/ When your life no longer revolves around getting high or drunk, your life will become the opposite of boring. Think of the routine that you have gotten into, always going out and drinking or drugging with the same people, usually at the same location (or one of a few local hot spots).

Most Common Reasons People are Afraid to Get Sober

Research shows that if you maintain these types of toxic relationships, your chances of relapsing are greater. To avoid relapse and remain sober, it’s important to develop healthy relationships. You may again seek out the people and situations that support your alcohol use.