May 20, 2024
Re-establishing sobriety two months after Dry January should not be an issue for you. If “how to stay sober in March” is your next big dilemma, then you have come to the right place. At Tribe Sober, we offer empathetic recovery coaching for problem drinkers. Discover the perks of an alcohol-free life, January until December, when you quit drinking.
Falling off the wagon after Dry January is a curse suffered by many. For people who drink, taking a month off the booze is usually a well-meaning commitment on the calendar. As soon as the 31st has slipped past, February sees the trolleys stacked in the bottle stores – with beers and wines and spirits and who knows what else?! Then the drinking starts again.
If you are reading this blog, however, your Conversations with Janis are about beginning a new alcohol-free life. New beginnings are a January thing for many people. For the Tribe Sober bunch, our new beginnings are every day. We take things day by day. What does it mean to live one day at a time when you are in recovery?
Being in recovery is unique for every individual. Some addicts are in recovery from enormous rock bottom episodes where they have literally lost everything. Some addicts must learn to start again from scratch. Drinking is an addiction too, yes.
Being sober for many people in recovery means being grateful for being alive and having a roof over their heads. Some addicts lose their families, their jobs, and their homes.
According to The Discovery Institute in New Jersey, USA, living one day at a time is focusing “on the present moment, and not have to worry about the past or future.”
Recovering individuals will likely feel guilt and shame about their past addictive behaviors, and this can be a trigger to use. Also, recovering individuals may be unsure about their future and anxious for the unknown, which can also be a trigger to use. Focusing on the goals and mission of the present moment allows these individuals to work on developing useful coping skills now, so that they are prepared for the future and able to handle the past.
Not only is a person committing to living today sober, but they are also committing to doing all that staying sober entails throughout the next 24 hours. These commitments include:
It is two months since Dry January and many people are wondering how they will stay sober during March. Taking sobriety one day at a time is the only way. A recovery coach will ensure that things stay present, with simple plans for the immediate future. What article are you going to read today about recovery? What kind deed are you going to do for yourself today?
Many recovery tools keep drinkers on track of their sobriety. These help them to think about their special character traits, their strengths and their reasons for being. For many people giving up alcohol, it can be a windy and rocky road to stay on the sober path. There are obstacles on the way: depression, mood swings, resentment, family issues, work issues and plenty of stress-outs along the road.
Re-establishing sobriety after Dry January and trying to ensure a sober March may be tougher this year. The world has been in a strange place for the past 12 months, the Coronavirus changing everything we do. Adaptation has been key. Drinking escalated globally during abnormal lockdown procedures and then Dry January 2021 arrived and gained more popularity than ever before!
Many drinkers started to realise just how crap the alcohol was making them feel. And when they researched the health benefits of alcohol, they found that drinking has ZERO health benefits. In fact, alcoholic drinks are risky to our health. Scientists are revealing that alcohol is the cause of several cancers, of liver disease, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and depression.
Have you ever suffered any of these?
If you are a drinker (like I was) and you have been drinking for years, chances are you drink a lot and don’t really feel the effects anymore. When you do feel the effects, you laugh it off, ignore the criticisms leveled against you, and carry continue drinking. Sometimes you cannot remember what it was you said or did – you get mini blackouts.
Then you decide to go dry for January – 31 full days alcohol-free, yay. When you have turned that corner, you pick up a glass on 1 February. Before you know it, you are right back where you left off, sipping your bottle of wine a night, feeling crap the next day, and hiding all your guilty feelings from everyone. And then you wonder how to stay sober in March!
Does this sound familiar huh? Yea. Gotcha. I know all about it. Taking a month off drinking here and there is for the birds – or is that the dinosaurs? People who drink alcohol like all of us cannot moderate and that is a fact. Moderation is “the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one’s behaviour” – also means “self-restraint” or “self-discipline”.
Problem drinkers, or those who suffer alcohol misuse disorder, cannot simply use will power to stop this bad habit. They need to sober up and get help.
According to Anna Deeds, “One of the main differences between someone who drinks socially and someone who has a drinking problem is the inability to cut back or stop when you want to. A social drinker can make the decision that they want to drink less and then follow through and do it. Alcoholics cannot do that and no amount of willpower will change that. Abstinence is the only thing that will give the body and brain a chance to heal.
Find a good recovery coach near where you live or online. Then make a point of finding your sober tribe. Join Tribe Sober and learn about the joys of alcohol-free living. Tribe Sober is made up of people who’ve gotten sober via our workshops or coaching programs, people who are well on their way to ditching the drink – and people who are new and need a bit of support.
It’s a warm and welcoming community and we’re all about keeping each other on track to achieve a common goal – to break free from the booze trap. If you’re concerned that alcohol could be preventing you from fulfilling your potential, then join our tribe and live life to the full.
