Get professional help from an online addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp. You may be facing concerns about spending time away from your loved ones, how to cover the cost of treatment, or even the negative stigma surrounding addiction and rehab. This may raise questions about whether you should try to get sober on your own. Additionally, the psychological symptoms of withdrawal can be difficult to overcome without support.

Keeping track of how many drinks you’ve had can really help you avoid getting drunk. If you find yourself on the other end of things, helping someone else get sober, there are several helpful things you can do. These include providing a friendly ear, helping them identify the care they need, and making sure they stay safe. But depending on your personality and drinking patterns, it may be possible. If you go this route, make sure you have some good friends and allies checking in on you. Consider using a journal, or one of the many stop drinking apps on the market, to give you some structure.

Find Balance in Your Life

Treatment success depends on developing a new way of living and addressing the reasons why you turned to drugs in the first place. For example, your drug dependency may have developed from a desire to manage pain or to cope with stress, in which case you’ll need to find a healthier way to relieve pain or to handle stressful situations. Learning sober coping strategies to deal with stress can help you stay calm and avoid triggering explosive emotional reactions or relapse. The goal is not to avoid feeling angry or upset but to self-soothe without substances. Breathwork, meditation, and yoga are all some ways you can work on your emotional regulation outside of a healthcare provider’s office. Admitting that there’s a need for a change in your life can be one of the most challenging parts of getting sober.

• Additionally, being in an environment where you frequently used in the past makes it difficult to step away from old behavior patterns and start fresh with a new sober lifestyle.
• With all the focus on your partner’s recovery, you may ask, silently or aloud, “What about me?
• Instead, focus on things, experiences, and activities that will support your new, healthy lifestyle.
• After alcohol enters the bloodstream, the liver breaks it down.
• Recovery works through one alcoholic sharing their experience with another.
• You may also experience what is commonly called sobriety fatigue, which refers to the overall exhaustion that may occur as a result of the emotional and physical stress of staying sober.

Although not as well known a solution as AA, there are several medications that can help you quit drinking. Naltrexone helps reduce your motivation to drink by lessening the pleasurable effects of alcohol. Acamprosate helps block alcohol cravings once you’ve already quit, helping you avoid relapse. Gabapentin, baclofen, and topiramate have all also been shown to reduce people’s interest in alcohol.

Withdrawal Symptoms

During group therapy, you get the benefits of support while getting professional help. However, group therapy is usually only temporary and not meant for lifetime support. Group therapy can also be costly if your insurance does not cover the costs. https://curiousmindmagazine.com/selecting-the-most-suitable-sober-house-for-addiction-recovery/ Some support groups, like SMART Recovery, do not use the 12-Step model. “SMART” stands for “Self-Management and Recovery Training.” SMART Recovery focuses more on building coping skills for everyday life and does not focus on a higher power.

Coping mechanisms learned in therapy combined with a healthy diet and exercise are the best ways to deal with PAWS at and after the first 30 days without alcohol. These symptoms are impossible to manage on one’s own, as well as extremely unsafe to handle without medical supervision. The opposite approach to cold-turkey withdrawals is medical detoxification, which attempts to flush the alcohol out of your system as quickly as possible. This approach may not be safe either, as it can cause chemical imbalances that worsen withdrawal symptoms during the first days of sobriety. Once you’ve decided to make a change, it can be tempting to try to get it over with as quickly as possible.