143 - 3 Biggest Challenges in Early Sobriety

Real Recovery Talk

Benjamin and I will give you advice on how to overcome the three biggest challenges you may face when you are moving from a life of addiction to a life of sobriety.

First, you have to establish new relationships with other sober people. Don’t hang out with your old friends who are drinking or doing drugs. They will be a negative influence on your life and can drag you back down to return to being an active addict. You’ll outgrow the addicts that used to be your “friends,” recover your family relationships and build new positive habits in your life.

Look at your relationships and review your connections with others. Find those who genuinely love you and care about your well-being and restore these relationships. Review the relationships with others who are your drinking buddies or your friends you did drugs with and do not continue those connections.

Grow your network that contains people who are also recovering, people who will assist you in moving forward in your sobriety, and add those who are a part of your sobriety journey.

Secondly, you have to establish a new lifestyle as the former lifestyle is not conducive to sobriety. You have many hours to fill without drugs and alcohol. Find positive activities you like to do, such as exercise, finding a new hobby, and finding a job you want to do. Fill your day with positive, fun activities instead of the negative influence of drugs. You can also relearn to love old activities while sober!

Third, be careful not to get into the “groundhog’s day” syndrome. Make goals that are time-sensitive, and plan your day around moving forward toward your goals. Do activities that help you achieve what you want out of life. Make sure to start your day out positive.

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Show Notes:

• [03:15] Stopping your addiction is not easy, but you can recover and live a better life.
• [03:54] Establish new relationships with other sober people.
• [06:05] Build your life of recovery with spiritual growth and other positive habits.
• [10:34] You may want to restore relationships with others who stopped hanging out with you because of your addiction.
• [13:16] Establish a new lifestyle for your new life of recovery.
• [16:26] Why Ben hates running and he thinks it sucks, and why he does it every morning.
• [18:18] Find new activities you like to do through your new sober connections.
• [20:29] What can you do to deal with the boredom?
• [24:04] The Triangle Club meets at 7am for those who are dedicated to getting their lives back together before they go off to work.

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