I Hate Being Sober, What Should I Do?
One of the challenges of addiction recovery is hating the sobriety you worked so hard to reach. It’s common to hear “I hate being sober” and you are not alone if you realize you resent not being able to drink one day. When you hate, rather than enjoy sobriety, you may feel like it isn’t for you. However, before you give in to these feelings, consider these tips to help you experience happier sobriety.
Contact Myrtle Beach Recovery to learn more about the programs and environment we offer to help you begin and sustain a sober and fulfilling life.
4 Tips For a Happier Sobriety
1. Count your gains.
If you are sober and unhappy, you likely spend a lot of time dwelling on your losses. Sobriety brings many changes, which often lead to feelings of sadness, loneliness, and deprivation. You may have exchanged close friends, a social network, and personal confidence for loneliness, Friday nights sitting alone, and feelings of fear. However, it is important to consider how much you gain by persevering and living a sober life. For instance, your time of interaction with others is without the influence of an addictive and personality-changing substance. Eventually, with sobriety, you gain authentic confidence, self-esteem, and peace of mind.
2. Consider your company.
Hating sobriety is nothing new in the recovery community. Although your personal path is unique, most challenges during the journey have been experienced by others. This makes the company you keep critical to your success. Reach out to others who are pursuing sobriety, as you will find someone experiencing frustration with sobriety or have overcome this obstacle in the past. Remaining isolated and focusing on your hatred of sobriety is unlikely to help you reach your goal and possibly lead to a relapse.
3. Identify your trigger.
Assess what happened to cause your feelings. Even though you may feel surprised and disappointed to hate the very thing you so diligently pursued, it is not uncommon. The attainment of a significant goal is often followed by a letdown and unhappiness instead of the expected joy. With sobriety, the culprit is often an emotional trigger. These can include the death of a friend, family member, or pet, a change in job status, an unkind word, or a problematic doctor’s report. Sobriety does not eliminate the problems of life. In the past, alcohol numbed the pain, but now you face and feel the full impact of these difficulties. Talk with others about your trigger and learn from them the most effective and healthy ways to respond. As you continue on the sobriety path, you will become more adept at coping with life’s triggering events.
4. Work your plan.
Just like traveling physically, you started your journey to sobriety with a plan. This plan probably included using many tools to help you through tough times. Hating sobriety is one of those times and will likely succumb to a tool already in your toolbox. Maybe it’s rigorous exercise, changing your diet, or doing volunteer work to help others. Before you spend too much time in a panic about hating sobriety, try to recall the plan you formulated in the beginning. Then, identify possible methods to put you back on the right path to living a life of joy, happiness, and peace in sobriety.
Consider Myrtle Beach Recovery
We offer residential rehab facilities in a supportive environment that provides the help you need to defeat addiction and live a victorious and sober life. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you maintain a joyful attitude in sobriety.
