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Five New Year’s Resolutions that Support Sobriety
As the new year approaches, you may already be thinking about resolutions. Right about now, many people are thinking about new goals for the new year. Some of those goals are realistic. Others are probably not. Either way, this time of year can be a good moment to take a little time to think about your goals and priorities—and how you can emphasize them as another year gets underway. Of course, if you are a person in recovery from a substance use disorder, your primary resolution is obvious: I resolve to stay sober in the new year. But as anyone
Here Come Four Holidays that can be Hard on Your Recovery
We are approaching a big run of holidays. In rapid succession, we will experience Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (or a number of other December holidays), and New Year’s Eve. Many people find all of these holidays wholly delightful. Others like some more than others. And some people wish they didn’t have to deal with any of them at all. But no matter how you feel about these late-year holidays, if you are a person in recovery from a substance use disorder, each has the potential to put your sobriety in danger. Let’s consider each holiday in turn. Halloween: Too Much Sugar
Don’t Go It Alone: Keeping Loneliness at Bay in Recovery
It is probably the case that most everyone feels lonely from time to time. Maybe you are the only person in the office on a Saturday while you try to catch up on work. Maybe you are home alone because everyone else in the family has one activity or another. Maybe a good friend is out of town for a while—or has moved away permanently. These moments of loneliness are, in general, no big deal and are short-lived. But ongoing loneliness can be problematic. This is especially true for a person who is in recovery from a substance use disorder.
Do Not Take Club Drugs Just to Be Sociable—Or For Any Other Reason
Have you ever heard someone say that they are just a “social smoker” or a “social drinker”? Maybe you have said something like this yourself. The idea of the social smoker or drinker is that the person in question does not smoke or drink all of the time. Instead, they just light up or drink up when they are in the company of friends. We must admit that we are, in general, a little skeptical of the notion of social smokers or drinkers. But the concept does point to an important fact: Many people develop a substance use disorder as
Make Up Your Mind to Give Mindfulness a Try
Here is an experience you are likely familiar with. You are engaged in a task you have done a million times before—taking a shower, washing the dishes, mowing the lawn—and your thoughts start to drift. Maybe you find yourself replaying something that happened to you recently. Maybe you start to think about something that is coming up that you are feeling a little nervous about. Or maybe you would be hard-pressed to recount your series of thoughts to someone else because you have fallen down a rabbit hole of tenuously connected ideas or memories (mindless social media scrolling is one
No Hard Definition of ‘Rock Bottom’
Are you hip to Elmo’s feud with a pet rock named Rocco? Elmo, the red furry monster of Sesame Street fame, finds himself frequently losing his temper when faced with the demands of Rocco as presented by Elmo’s friend Zoe. As Elmo likes to remind anyone who will listen, Rocco is a rock! Rocks are, in general, pretty easy to understand. While the idea that a rock is a solid mass of geological materials might not roll right off your tongue, as a rule, we know a rock when we see one. And we know its likely characteristics—especially the fact
