How to Stop Drinking
In early recovery it is all we can do to just stay sober for another day. We might struggle to stay sober for a 24 hour period and in order to make it through this tough time we might have to focus on networking and getting help from the fellowship. This is fine but as we transition to long term recovery you will notice a shift towards personal growth and self reliance. This does not mean that you are permanently healed of alcoholism or that you no longer need others to recover, but only that there is a shift in what you focus on. Long term sobriety is about passionate living, while early recovery is about support and fellowship and learning. Both stages use all of these strategies, but the emphasis is going to be different for those who find success in recovery.
So you want to know how to stop drinking? My first piece of advice is that you seek out a professional facility to dry out in. This is important because stopping drinking can literally kill you if you are not careful. There is also the added bonus that if you go to a treatment center to detox then you will also receive a ton of support from doing so. The networking that you get from your peers in early recovery is of vital importance, and going to a treatment center will automatically introduce you to these types of connections. Because of these 2 things pointed out, I strongly urge anyone to go to a medical drug rehab if you really want to get sober.
Now at this point many people think that their job is done when they walk out of the treatment center but in fact it has not even started yet. The real challenge in recovery is in living your life sober without resorting back to resentment and anger and eventually relapsing. It is not always the drinking that got us in trouble but also the lifestyle itself. If you leave rehab and try to remain sober but go back to the same old life situation then you might have a hard time with sobriety. We need to really change our life in a major way if we're going to stay sober in the long run. This is not impossible but it does require action.
Most alcoholics who leave rehab don't do what is necessary to maintain recovery. If you want to make recovery work for you then you need to approach it with overwhelming force. We put a lot of time into our alcoholism so we should put a lot of time into our sobriety. Most people underestimate what it will take to stay sober. The answer is to go further than what you think it will take in order to remain sober.
And that is the bottom line right there: If you want to stop drinking then you have to take action. At first your actions will be very specific and focus on getting you detoxed and learning how to live a sober life. But after a while in sobriety your focus must change to that of caring for your self and trying to grow. In early recovery the support you get from other people is really important. In long term sobriety your drive for personal growth and holistic health is what is key.
