Make them feel included in plans and if you know they are struggling, suggest they attend a meeting or call a sponsor. The healing power of relationships, trust, love and connection is one of the most important tools for families. Damage to trust reframing holidays in early recovery and connection is often at the root of traumatic events that lead to disruptions in the brain’s ability to self-regulate physiologically and emotionally. Trauma can be the loss of connection to one’s self as well as well as the loss marijuana addiction of critical psychological connectedness between humans. It is intensely painful to be disconnected from the ones we love, and reconnecting in relationships has the power to transform recovery and the resiliency needed for sustained sobriety.
Dec A Framework for Staying Sober Through the Holidays in Early Recovery
- But, for those in early addiction recovery, the holidays come loaded with urges, cravings, and triggers that can make the festivities less than enjoyable.
- Staying sober and safeguarding your recovery must always come first.
- Here are my most tried-and-true tips to help you through this stretch of the year.
- You need to investigate and challenge the internal monologue about what you are owed and what you are lacking—some of which might be a carryover from addiction.
It’s better to miss them this time around in order to increase the likelihood that they will be alive, well, and able to participate in future events. For those of us in early recovery, the holidays can remind us of past rifts and wrongs, but they also present new opportunities for mending broken relationships. Healthy boundaries and clear communication can help start the holiday season with a clean slate for forging future connections. So whether or not your holidays are all the way happy, here’s to a holiday season that is healthy in recovery. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, don’t hesitate to seek help and support. Your journey to recovery is a path toward a brighter and more fulfilling future, and the holiday season can be a season of healing and transformation.
Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage
- Make them feel included in plans and if you know they are struggling, suggest they attend a meeting or call a sponsor.
- Give yourself a break by letting go of the need to meet the expectations of others.
- Take some time this holiday season to print out our holiday and recovery worksheet to help you create your plan to stay on your recovery path this season.
The holiday season revolves around unrelenting themes of gratitude, abundance, and celebration. Some families might consider the holidays an inappropriate time to help a loved one get into addiction treatment when, in fact, it could be an ideal opportunity. For many of the reasons mentioned earlier, substance abuse tends to ramp up over the holidays. Addiction treatment reframing holidays in early recovery initiated during the holidays could be the best gift you give to your family, your friends and yourself.
For young people in recovery
On top of that, you can’t attend your home group meeting, and you haven’t heard from your sponsor in two days. Here are seven tried-and-true tips and strategies that will prepare you for the holidays, help you avoid relapse and protect you from any uncomfortable situations. Everyone deals with holiday stress, but for people in recovery trying to stay sober, the holiday season places unprecedented challenges. Every late-November through December we are encouraged—sometimes even pressured, directly and indirectly—to celebrate the holidays that mark each year’s conclusion. Yet for most people, the holiday season is a mixed bag of experience that can range from the beautiful to the brutal—a combination of light and dark, with varying degrees of stress, joy, sorrow, connection, and loss.
- There are a million different ways to give back, pay it forward and be of service, and each opportunity guides you further away from resentment, self-pity and fear.
- Addiction treatment initiated during the holidays could be the best gift you give to your family, your friends and yourself.
- Whether you’re ready to share that part of your life or not, this can make getting together with family stressful.
- Getting through the end-of-year holidays while maintaining recovery, especially for people newer to this life-changing process, is an important accomplishment—one worthy of celebration in its own right.
- However, just because these emotions can be too much to handle, they are not excuses to rationalize a slip.
Celebrate the holiday season and the fullness of your sober life by taking time for yourself. Proper nutrition, gentle exercise and restorative sleep can do wonders for your well-being. The better you feel physically, the stronger you will be emotionally. Nourish your spirit, too, through personal reflection and connection with those you love.
Be conscious of your evolving needs for emotional and physical space, and give yourself the gift of that space as necessary. Our Treatment Advisors are available 24 hours a day to help you or a loved one access care. We’re ready to make sure you have the support you need to achieve lifelong recovery. Our hope is merely to capture the spirit of the fellowships, and to approach people with the language they commonly use to describe the disease of addiction. If you come prepared to protect your https://ecosoberhouse.com/ sobriety, you should be able to outmaneuver addiction and avoid any potential relapses. Getting through the end-of-year holidays while maintaining recovery, especially for people newer to this life-changing process, is an important accomplishment—one worthy of celebration in its own right.
Trying to Stay Sober This Holiday Season? We’ve Got You Covered
It might seem silly at first, but writing down our triggers, responses, and plans in advance can help us be better prepared for difficult situations. Take some time this holiday season to print out our holiday and recovery worksheet to help you create your plan to stay on your recovery path this season. First and foremost, it’s important to remember the reasons why you’re attending treatment in the first place. One of these reasons likely includes becoming healthier for your family, friends and loved ones. While it can be difficult to be in treatment during the holidays, know that the hard work you’re doing now can bring you to a better future.
Hatch a holiday escape plan, and plan to protect your sobriety
Principles Recovery Center has over 30 years experience in treating substance abuse, and are equipped to treat addicts with underlying co-occurring mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Our drug & alcohol treatment center offers clients access to detoxification at our partner facilities, along with partial day, IOP and outpatient rehab. The simple idea of going holiday shopping can be stressful on its own. For those in early recovery, you’ve probably haven’t seen some family members and friends in awhile. Those who are supportive of your recovery want to know what you need.
