3 Keys to Beating Alcohol Addiction
Beating alcohol addiction is a process that occurs in 2 stages. Early recovery and long term sobriety (the rest of your life) are the stages that make up your recovery journey.
The first stage is when you first get into recovery and you are basically shocked right out of your mind – your world is turned upside down and you feel vulnerable and scared because you suddenly do not have the crutch of alcohol to rely on. This is what I would refer to as early recovery. There is no specific amount of time that someone might take in this stage of their sobriety; some alcoholics are going to be in it for a few months and for others it might take a lot longer. But regardless, there is certainly a rough period in early recovery when the best you can do is cling to your new sobriety and simply not drink each day. This stage of recovery is very different from when you have been sober for a few years or even for several months.
One key in terms of recovering from alcohol addiction is the drive to learn new things about how to live successfully. You have to learn how to do everything in your life all over again because now you are going to do it sober. This might sound quite trivial but in fact it can be quite an ordeal. Recovery is all about getting a new education as far as living sober and so you have to stay humble if you’re going to make it. That means that you have to be receptive to learning new things on a day to day basis. If you are cocky or look down on the idea of learning new things about how to live then you will never make it through early recovery.
Another key to early sobriety is in connecting with other people who are also recovering. This is why 12 step meetings are so popular and helpful in early recovery. We need others who are on the same path as we are in order to draw strength and knowledge from them. This is a piece of your learning journey also…it is difficult to learn if there are no teachers in your life. In early recovery, our support network is responsible for much of the knowledge that we gain as to how we are to live in sobriety.
The third key to overcoming alcohol addiction is the pursuit of personal growth. You’re realize that this also compares well with learning and they two are actually very similar. But personal growth is more than just learning, it is applied life; applied habits and positive energy. One example of this might be daily exercise that might become a crucial part of someone’s growth in recovery. This isn’t just about learning new stuff but is also just a good habit in general that can be a crucial part of sobriety.
