Can You Get Sober Without AA?

If any area of your life is out of control, it will not help you maintain lasting sobriety. Anger is a normal and natural emotion, but how you deal with it will make a difference in maintaining your recovery. Once you do return to work, it’s important to create a budget and take steps to safeguard yourself as work stress can be a relapse trigger. But it is possible to take baby steps and get your finances in order.

I didn’t stay sober for long that first time—not because of AA, but because I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t taken the time to think about what might work best for me. You can be sober and happy by focusing on your health and wellness in your everyday life. Relapse is very common during recovery, and it does not mean that you failed. If you experience relapse, the most important thing to do is pick back up with treatment and keep developing coping strategies to prevent the chances of relapse happening again. Sobriety is a journey, and a destination; and there are always people around to assist you along the way.

Inpatient Treatment

But I would rather this happen than return to the life I was living prior to sobriety. Before I got sober, my physical and mental health were questionable. get sober without aa All I wanted to do was be wasted, and I was putting myself in dangerous situations when I drank. CBT is one of the best ways to treat drug or alcohol abuse.

• Until you’re at a better place in your recovery, avoid going to events where you know drinking will be a big part of them.
• Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and mental healthcare professionals.
• It is also common for people to project theonething that eventually worked for them onto others as theonlyway to be sober.
• This article discusses what sobriety means and describes strategies that can support your long-term recovery.

All of these things taken in sum cannot make me a dry drunk. Because when I stopped drinking, I filled that gaping chasm in my life with the opposite of drinking. I wrote, I learned how to fix and modify guitars, I learned to run, box, kickbox and suffer gladly the torturous workouts my trainer Tracy Helsing devised. I ate my vegetables and took my vitamins and did my homework. Of central importance to my transformation was keeping my appointments with my counselor, Chris Sturiano. I didn’t want to be honest so I forced myself to be honest. When I didn’t want to tell him something because I knew his response was going to annoy the fucking shit out of me, that was the first thing I forced myself to tell him.

What Happens if I Relapse?

Higher addiction levels would be far worse and even more difficult to withstand. Those who are more comfortable with a secular approach to addiction recovery may find the philosophy of SOS to be more helpful to them than 12-step programs. SOS has been helping people recover from addictive behavior toward drugs, alcohol and food for over 30 years. Most addiction treatment https://ecosoberhouse.com/ centers recommend at least 90 days of sober living before returning home. Many people need more time to get the skills they need to continue sober life outside of a sober living program. As alcoholism is not dependent on AA for its diagnosis, neither is sobriety. I describe myself as sober because I don’t drink alcohol and I am habitually abstinent from drugs.

The first step of an inpatient program is detoxification. Then behavioral therapy and other services are introduced. These programs typically last 30, 60, or 90 days, sometimes longer. It is not structured, allowing people to find their own paths to recovery using their tools. We think there is wisdom in this, because sometimes people need different elements of a program in order to achieve their goals. In Drinker’s Helper, our quit drinking app, people can pick which of the over 75 exercises they want to do given their needs at the moment. This means that just under 50% of those who recover do so in a self-managed way, without the help of meetings or medications.

Community Support

Even if you choose not to go to AA meetings, you can still live “one day at a time.” When you live one day at a time, sobriety does not appear as impossible. You can focus on short-term sobriety, staying sober for 24 hours at a time.

Shame is having negative beliefs about yourself and your self-worth. Guilt is having negative feelings about your past behavior. People in recovery can experience a lot of shame simply for having become addicted in the first place. If PAWS is severe or if you’re experiencing prolonged symptoms, a medical professional can help you work through them and remain in recovery without relapse. This article discusses what sobriety means and describes strategies that can support your long-term recovery.