Sobriety is a life-long journey and recovery isn’t always easy.
Sometimes even years after being sober, life can throw you for a loop. Dealing with the death of someone close to you, getting a divorce, losing a job, or watching your parents age can all have you headed back down the path of addiction if you are not careful.
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How To Maintain Long-Term Sobriety in Recovery
As a series of nationwide substance abuse treatment centers, we know that recovery is far from easy. In order to help you maintain your sobriety, we are offering some long-term sobriety tips.
Keep A Strict Routine
It is tempting to get lazy, but it is easy to fall out of your routine when you start to cut corners. As soon as your routine is gone, you may find yourself slipping back into old habits and heading in the direction of a relapse.
Don’t Get Complacent
Maintaining long-term sobriety requires commitment. Being sober isn’t something you decide to do once; you need to choose sobriety every day. Once you are done with treatment, you should continue to actively practice what you learned from addiction therapies as well as attend meetings in your area.
Don’t Get Overconfident
Just because you have been sober for a few years now doesn’t mean you are able to jump back into the same situations or places you went to while you were an addict. Addiction cravings can occur years after getting sober. While you can slowly ease your way back into these environments, avoid getting cocky and jumping headfirst into a bad situation that you aren’t actually ready for.
Keep in Touch
With time, it is common for people to lose touch with one another if they do not see each other regularly. In recovery, support is imperative, but losing touch with your sponsor or peers from your addiction rehab programs is not in your best interest. While friends and family may provide a good support system, it is nice to have someone to lean on who understands what you are going through when times get tough. At Banyan Treatment Centers, our alumni programs connect people who completed our programs and acts as a large addiction support group.
Fill Your Time
It is important to fill the void that your addiction left behind because boredom can lead to relapse. Some people try a new hobby. Others turn to their faith. Even years after first becoming sober, you should still follow this rule. Especially if you recently became an empty nester, quit your job, retired, or experienced another life event that has freed up your time, you should look for ways to fill the free time in recovery to avoid relapse.
Get Help for A Relapse
Everybody makes mistakes. It is natural to feel embarrassed or ashamed of a relapse, especially if you were sober for a long-time, but instead of possibly falling back into addiction, get help. A stabilization program provides patients with programming for recovery after relapse.
Maintaining long-term sobriety is a challenge, but with the right resources, it is possible. If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, get help now.
Reach out to us today at 888-280-4763 to get more information.
