There are also resources such as 12-step groups and recovery groups. If you’re in recovery from a substance use disorder, you already know how much work it took to achieve sobriety, and you’ll want to do everything possible to avoid having a relapse. It may seem that relapse is the last thing that could happen to you, but the truth is they are very common for people new to recovery. Suffering through an addiction can sometimes make you feel undeserving of love.

The only way to get you out of this rut of not taking care of yourself is sobriety. This might seem like a terrible thing; this is not a terrible thing. This is a JOYOUS and wonderful thing because it easily sorts out the ones that have a weird relationship with alcohol, or the ones that just aren’t for you. It will hurt (pretty bad at first), but in time you will come to see it as the gift it is—and you won’t waste time getting to know the wrong person.

Eventually, you start loving the process.

Sobriety positions you to break through these limitations. You will free yourself to better cope with stress, more effectively communicate with others and devote yourself fully to the tasks in front of you. With the start of a new year, many people intentionally choose to be a better version of themselves. sober house Whether they make a resolution to lose weight, read more, or be a better friend, self-improvement is a hot topic this time of year. By quitting alcohol, I was immediately thrown into motion, unstuck. Everything I’d been looking for—adventure, newness, the courage I knew was mine—materialized.

You don’t sign up for that fitness class because you’ve thought about it, and people in there will probably talk about you; you don’t have anything to wear, and you’ll hate every second. Even when they all drank, I didn’t care because that wasn’t the focus of the gathering and nobody got drunk. I learned that having a group of friends over for pizza and board games was perfectly fine for me and actually much more fun than getting drunk and sloppy at some club. Once I decided that I was really, really done with drinking, I decided to be more open-minded about how I spent my time. Or hey, I’ve been feeling low-energy and bummed out lately.

You have more fun.

All you have to do is get out there and go find some fun sober activities. How many times did you have to apologize for things you said or did while you were addicted? Without the influence of drugs and alcohol, you’re bound to make better decisions, and as a result, you’ll make fewer apologies to the people you love. Although you’ll probably still need to make apologies here and there, they won’t be a result of drunken escapades and you can genuinely apologize and make amends with a clear and sober mind. Drugs and alcohol change the way your brain functions and may even cause long-term or irreversible brain damage. Fortunately, not all of the damage is permanent and as your body adjusts to sobriety, your brain will too.

If you don’t know the person well, simply saying you have to get up early the next morning or you quit for health reasons should be enough. Just as your definition of sobriety and idea of a sober life can differ from other people’s, your reasons for wanting to live substance-free may vary, too. Any person dealing with drug or alcohol dependency or addiction should develop a personal list of reasons why staying sober is a worthy goal. This list can help you put in perspective what you find so valuable that it’s worth the dedication, hard work and effort you put into ceasing alcohol consumption and walking away from drug use. Nobody likes to think that they might end up with liver disease or other substance-related health problems.

Your physical health improves.

Why put yourself through all of that when you can live a happy, sober, and healthy life instead. Drugs create distance between a user and his or her life. You may have had things or people in your life to make you happy, but in your using days, darkness constantly overpowered that potential for joy. You drank or used drugs in efforts to feel something, but most often it just pushed you farther away from those that were closest. Your days of using may have become hazy, as you struggled to remember the better times and blacked out the times that were worse. By losing these memories, you may have also lost sight of family and friends.