Things that change when you get sober

Our society is an alcohol centered society. Our culture focuses on getting blitzed and if you look around, every part of our country and culture has a relationship with booze. Many relationships are formed over alcohol, the sporting events that we enjoy so much are liquor inspired events, going out and having fun is alcohol centered, and so on.

It is expected that we all get loaded and participate in this booze fest or at least be what society calls a “social drinker”. In life, we must be part of this drinking lifestyle of bad decisions and intoxication to fit in we are told and if we do not then we are viewed as strange or lame and this very message is engrained in us very early in adulthood.

Now, as those in recovery will tell you, there comes a point when we put down the drink and/or the drug and start to live a different life and that is where the theme of this article comes from. It is a very different life to say the least and with all its ups and downs in many ways it is a much better life, but it is also difficult to adapt to and the many changes that happen.

So, what changes exactly? The short answer is a LOT. I will give a more in-depth description of what changes below, there are many things that change and in order to stay the course in our sobriety and maintain some joy in our lives we must adapt to these changes, if we do not then life can be very, very hard.

Meeting People -

This is the first major change. How and where we meet people and our social life as a whole. We connect socializing with drinking and are so used to the thought that a drink can give us that liquid courage that once we get sober we cannot socialize without being drunk or buzzed. We succumb to the belief that we need to drink to meet people and we get caught up in the societal thought process that we need alcohol to meet people, when that is not teh truth.

People use alcohol as a social crutch and this is especially true when talking to people in dating situations. We just cannot fathom the idea of talking to someone that we fancy without that liquid courage and that is a dangerous place for the alcoholic/addict as it is this that will take us back to our days of being loaded and have us seek that out.

This belief that we cannot talk to people sober must be smashed as it is what will cause our downfall and it will also keep us stuck without friends or dates in sobriety. Meeting people is not just something to do when loaded, we can socialize and meet people sober and while it changes and is different than when we were drunk, it is possible.

Our Priorities -

Our priorities also change when we get sober. In the past we would put drinking and partying first and never things like paying bills, taking care of loved ones, working, or participating in self care. Our only priority was to get loaded and we would go to any lengths to make that happen and keep at it no matter what the cost.

We grow up when we get sober and we become responsible adults who value things like good credit, helping others, and living a healthy lifestyle. We come to appreciate the little things in life and we value ourselves and being healthy and happy. We are new people and a big change from our drinking days is that we are accountable and we hold ourselves to a higher standard in work, in love, and in life overall.

People, Places, and Things -

Places. In recovery there is a saying. The saying is that we are powerless over people, places, and things, but one more thing is true about that trio and that is that people, places, and things all change once we get sober. The places we go change as we no longer go to bars, we cannot if we are to maintain our sobriety and stay on course. We have to stop hanging around bars in we are to not only stay sober, but also lead a different life and attract different things in our lives.

People. The people we associate with in recovery is different too as we now seek those who are on the same path that we are on. We want to hang with those who are seeking changes in their life as we are in our own lives and we want what people have and since drinkers no longer have what we want, we choose to avoid those folks.

Now, that is not saying that we do not have friends and family who drink. We do and we do not judge them for that as it is their own path, but what I mean is that we do not hang around with active alcoholics and people who can in fact endanger our own recovery and we certainly do not hang around with old using and drinking buddies.

Things. We change our things too. We do not have things around like we used to like alcohol, drugs, and the items associated with them. The things we value in recovery are different and we realize that we must change the things around us in order to maintain our spiritual experience and current way of life and we know that if we keep old things around that we will fall and lose all that we have gained in our recovery.

You see, these are just some of the many things that change when we choose to get sober and live a different life. Life is not the same as it was when we were getting loaded and that is because we are not the same. If we are focused and working a program then we change and by changing our view of life also changes and that means that our priorities, how and where we meet people, and overall life also changes and that is a positive thing as the way that we were living was just not good for us.

Embrace the changes in yourself and in your life and put your recovery first. If you do that then your life will be amazing and the promises will come true and you will have a life beyond your wildest dreams. The key is to wake up every morning and ask yourself if what you are about to do will make your life better or worse and if the answer is the latter, then you know that you must make some additional changes and continue to make adjustments for a better life and a better you!