The contents of this website, such as text, graphics, images, and other material contained on this website, are for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Oftentimes, the go-to for a meet-up with a friend is a bar or restaurant. Switch things up and meet up for coffee, or even better, go for a walk together.
What Makes Addiction Recovery a Challenging Process?
This may include worries about losing social connections or coping with life’s stresses unaided. This fear may manifest as an intense and persistent anxiety. When we aren’t sober, we can use that as an excuse to avoid those problems.
Are You Afraid to Be Sober? Common Fears You’ll Face Through Recovery
Besides, judging someone for not drinking alcohol is stupid, and you don’t need to be cool with that person anyway. In fact, this fear personally led to a dozen failures in my own sobriety journey. Many of us drink because we need something to turn down the volume of the toxic shame parade running through our brains. Right now, you’re freaking out about some hypothetical future social life because sobriety is a big change, and that little liquor demon in your brain is trying to talk you out of it. If your friends don’t want to hang out with you unless you’re drinking, then you know where you stand with each other.
With almost 60 sober house percent of sober people experiencing relapse, it’s no wonder that people are afraid of getting sober. Understanding your fear of getting sober is the first step to conquering it. Once you get a hold on the fears that are driving your hesitation and procrastination, you can begin to see clearly the benefits of getting sober. Below are ten reasons why people are afraid to get sober and how to overcome them. Everything I knew revolved around getting high and I had the maturity of a 13-year-old.
Fear of Facing Your Damage
They drink deliberately, with more awareness and consideration, prioritising quality over quantity. The IBX Insights Team is here to provide tips on using your health insurance and living a healthy life. Drinking stunts your emotional and personal growth. The truth is, you have no idea what success will look or feel like.
Fear arises when there is a conflict between what you want, need or love and what might happen if that want, need, or love is not fulfilled. Addressing fears in recovery is important because, despite being mere flights of imagination, fears have the power to derail many of your recovery efforts. Such fear is nothing to be ashamed of because it is natural.
“He said, https://northiowatoday.com/2025/01/27/sober-house-rules-what-you-should-know-before-moving-in/ ‘Since they have an alcohol problem, we let them drink a little bit to calm down,’” Anders recalled. Jeffrey Hustito responded that he was fine, though that fall he also cried on a phone call with his sister and told her that he hated where he was. He was homesick and said he wanted to return home for an annual tribal ceremony. When that event came and went, he said he would be home by Christmas. He continued sending his sister texts each day to say good morning.
Sources of fear during recovery
Looking back, I know that all of my actions during that time were based on fear. It shouldn’t be surprising then that fear is why many people don’t get sober or take a long time to do so. Education about addiction is a powerful tool in the recovery journey.
One of your fears in recovery may also relate to thoughts about being judged when you enter a residential treatment facility. This is especially true if you’ve been able to hide your addiction up until now. You might even think that addiction rehab is all about shaming addicts with their addiction and trying to force them to quit. Yet, this is far from the way that drug rehab centers actually operate nowadays. Your addiction rehab team will always endeavor to treat you with respect and without judgment.
Define Your Fear to Overcome It
I thought these needs were simple, since the only thing I needed was any substance to make me escape from my own mind. Anxiety and sobriety – two things that don’t seem like natural companions, but that’s only at first, naive sight. However, they do dance together in a way that feels, well, counterintuitive. You quit, expecting relief, clarity, an escape from the chaos that substances have spun into your life. Like an unwelcome guest, anxiety decides it’s time to crash the party. And here you are, sober and suddenly more anxious than ever.
- You’ll know you will be taught the tools to prevent a relapse and to deal with one if you do relapse.
- Knowing how much you drink, in what environments you drink, and who you usually drink with can help you create new habits and routines that don’t center around alcohol.
- By then, the fraud was so widespread that officials spent the next year seeking to halt Medicaid reimbursements to behavioral health businesses accused of wrongdoing.
- The anxiety-sobriety paradox, that unsettling wave of anxiousness after quitting, is a temporary guest.
- I’ve attended weddings, I’ve gone to bars, I’ve seen my favorite bands in concerts and I’ve even hung out with my old friends from my drug-using days.
These practices encourage focusing on the present moment, which helps alleviate worries about the future. Many people like to drink occasionally as a way to relax or socialize, but for others, the habit is rooted in anxiety and fear. If this is the case for you, you may want to dig deeper. In the fall of 2022, Hustito spent a week at home in Zuni Pueblo. His sister recalled asking him to stay in New Mexico for good. But he was anticipating another California trip with his treatment program, she said.
Stop Being Afraid to Get Sober with Northpoint Recovery
- Practice and plan your responses so that you feel confident and prepared in these environments.
- It is very normal in the early days to feel like you’ve resigned yourself to a life of misery by quitting alcohol.
- You’ll get significantly better at identifying the kind of people you genuinely enjoy being around, which is much harder to do when everyone is vibing off overpriced cocktails in dimly lit bars.
- If you’ve ever heard of the term “sober curious,” you may be wondering how it’s different from month-long sobriety challenges like Dry January or Sober October or even being completely sober.
And you will have days when every minute feels like a struggle. Besides, once you get to the point where you can attend boozy social functions sober, you’ll see that many people think they’re being charming when in reality, they’re kind of a mess. With proper counseling and/or a good recovery program, you’ll learn important tools for navigating these relationships. There are plenty of things people do that do not involve or center around alcohol. You might be a little bored at first, but with time, you’ll discover new and more fulfilling things to do with your time. For years, I worried about the impact of sobriety on my social life.