3 Tips to Stay Sober During the Holidays

learnFor many Americans, the holiday season brings about a series of celebrations with family and friends. During the holidays, you will share good food, have fun conversations, play games, give gifts, and usually, there are drinks flowing freely. Staying sober during the holidays can be a challenge, but it is possible. With professional alcohol treatment, Boston residents can learn the techniques needed to stay sober this year. To get professional assistance, contact Greater Boston Addiction Center online or call 877.920.6583 today to learn how our alcohol addiction treatment can help.

The Holiday Season and Your Recovery

The holidays are a time to relax, reconnect and spend time with friends and family. Many adults will have a cold bottle of beer or glass of wine in one hand throughout the year-end holidays, but you are clean now, and you want to have a sober holiday season. For those recovering from addiction, the holidays can be stressful, full of harmful triggers that can too easily lead to experiencing a relapse. Our Massachusetts substance abuse center can help you not only get sober but learn the life skills and coping mechanisms you’ll need to stay sober during the holidays and all year long.

Managing Your First Sober Holiday? 

If this will be your first sober holiday season, you can benefit from getting treatment in a professional outpatient rehab center if you are really ready to heal. While drinking and doing drugs, you may have caused physical and emotional scars that have not yet been forgiven or forgotten. Over the holidays, you may see some of the people you have previously hurt. This can bring on feelings of shame, guilt, worry, stress, and anxiety. While these feelings will surely pass, but it helps to be armed with skills taught by recovery experts.

Remember that this time of year is about gratitude, reconnection, togetherness, and giving thanks for all that you have in your life. Your recovery and newfound sobriety are chiefly among the things you can feel thankful for during the holidays. You’re a changed person, but your friends and family are the same people you may have hurt and cheated on, and those relationships may still need to be mended. Here are tips for staying sober as you enjoy the holidays with the most important people in your life.

3 Tips for Staying Sober During the Holidays

Avoid High-Risk Situations

This is easier said than done during the holidays but you must know your individual triggers. To experience a sober Thanksgiving, you may need to:

• Stay away from old friends who are still using drugs or drinking to excess
• Recognize the family members who may set you off
• Have an exit strategy if the environment becomes toxic and dangerous to your sobriety
• Talk to members of your support network every day
• If traveling out of town for the holidays, seek out rehab meetings in that area 

There may come a time during the holidays when you need to take time out and escape the stress. This is key to staying sober. You may need to:

• Go for a walk outside
• Remind yourself of all the reasons you quit drinking
• Enjoy the fresh air
• Watch a sunrise/sunset

Surround Yourself With Supportive People

One of the sober techniques that can help to facilitate a sober holiday season is to bring a long-term clean friend with you to the celebrations. Having a friend that understands and has gone through similar situations successfully, allows you to have someone to speak honestly with about your thoughts and feelings in real-time as you are experiencing them. Having a supportive, sober buddy will greatly relieve any stress you might feel while trying to stay sober during the holidays this year.

Be Useful

There’s a famous saying about idle hands being the devil’s plaything. One way to stay sober over the holidays is to help out the host and yourself by doing dishes, sweeping floors, and asking what else you can do to help prepare for or clean up after the holiday party. Because you were absent, drunk, or high and didn’t offer to be useful in the past, being helpful in this useful way this year may also help to heal old wounds. Instead of talking about how much you have changed, you can demonstrate your growth as a person, show gratitude to the host for having the holiday party in their home, make amends, and keep yourself busy and sober!

Learn More at Greater Boston Addiction Centers

You have so much to be thankful for this holiday season, but relapses can happen when the conditions are challenging. Learn how the alcohol rehab centers in MA can teach you how to stay sober in high-stress situations during the holidays. Contact Greater Boston Addiction Centers today using our secure online form or call us at 877.920.6583.