By: Flaka Ismaili    April 14, 2023

As explained in a study from the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, even something as simple as a motivational texting program can better your chances of avoiding relapse. It is generally the first step in a more comprehensive treatment plan. You must be ready to change in order to find the best treatment program for you.

Episode 21: Addiction from a Family Members Perspective (Part

It will help prevent relapse once the formal treatment program ends. With help from a healthcare professional, you can start looking for a treatment program that meets all of your unique needs. The first step to getting sober is recognizing and admitting that you have a problem with drug or alcohol misuse. It’s difficult to admit that you have lost control over your substance use.

Diet and Exercise

Therapy can be effective in helping individuals stay sober without AA. It can provide a safe space to explore underlying issues that may contribute to addiction and develop coping strategies. There are several alternative programs to AA for staying sober, such as SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, and Women for Sobriety.

Using the Internet to Stay Sober Without AA

Old photos may help people remember how far they have come and given them the courage to continue down their path of sobriety. Have you thought about joining AA, but do not have transportation to travel to meetings? You could try this technique to find and maintain sobriety.

• Our staff are highly trained with dual mental health and substance use licensing.
• A study from Substance Abuse indicates that having support from others can improve a person’s chances of engaging in and completing detox and treatment for addiction.
• The term “stan” comes from the song of the same name from Em’s 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP.
• These are only a few of the signs that may indicate a substance use disorder.
• There is no one-size-fits-all approach to sobriety, and that needs to be said.
• Identify some things you enjoy doing that don’t involve drinking, and cultivate those new rituals and activities.

Residential treatment can last days, and gives you a chance for a full reset. Outpatient rehab lets you continue living at home and attend treatment for several hours per day. Online rehab is the least disruptive, letting you talk to doctors and coaches from home via your phone. Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) is a network of independent groups to help people achieve or maintain sobriety.

A primary reason 12-step works for so many people (in my opinion) is it sets you up with a new social scene, full of folks just like yourself. If you choose to quit drinking without AA, it’s important to consider your current social scene and whether or not you’d like to change that. If you need sober friends and don’t do support groups, Meetup has great local activities that will allow you to get out of the bars and meet people in positive environments. Exercise can support your recovery by boosting your brain, battling the brain disorder of alcohol use disorder. This isn’t talked about in 12-step much but it’s a life-saver.

• Remember, your path to sobriety is unique, and finding what works best for you is essential.
• With the same wit and candor found in his other popular works, we follow the writer from a rehab reality check back to the bustling city, where he must learn to navigate life on the wagon.
• These medications can help reduce alcohol cravings, helping people to either cut back or stay sober after they’ve quit.
• If you’re in denial that you have a drinking problem and don’t fully believe that it’s something that needs to be fixed, nothing in the world is going to change your alcohol addiction.
• Suboxone should not be taken by individuals who have been shown to be hypersensitive to buprenorphine or naloxone as serious adverse reactions, including anaphylactic shock, have been reported.

Why Stay Sober Without AA?

MM holds that problem drinking is not always the same thing as addiction, and in less severe instances, individuals may be able to moderate their drinking instead of abstaining completely. Moderation may not be the best strategy for everyone, MM acknowledges, but it may work well for some. There are endless options to try for support and guidance if you’d struggling with alcohol. Beck is a loving husband, father, and respected business owner who drinks two bottles of wine a night. Unwilling to call himself an alcoholic, he tries everything to curb his drinking without success. Determined to get clean, Beck develops a unique approach to sobriety that changes the trajectory of his life.

• Food, sex, cigarettes, gambling, and AA meetings are the most common habits I’ve seen as replacements for problematic drinking.
• I arrived seeking peace from emotional trauma, gaining personal spiritual insight, redirection in feeling chronic pain, and tools for developing emotional connection with my wife and children.
• MAT is often used in conjunction with other treatment methods, such as counseling and therapy.
• Peak Covid saw people giving into excess where alcohol was concerned, and the rise of sobriety following the pandemic seems straight out of a ‘nature is healing’ meme.
• This means that scientific research and evidence are used to support the techniques and methods that are promoted through this model.

Women also take responsibility for their own actions, understanding that each person is in control of their own happiness, and each woman is worthwhile and competent. The SMART Recovery program is not based on a spiritual foundation like AA; instead, it’s foundation is research-based. This means that scientific research and evidence are used to support the techniques and methods getting sober without aa that are promoted through this model. If none of these options sound good to you, you can build the recovery community you feel is lacking in the world. Start a group in your area or on a social networking site like Facebook, and watch it grow. You nor your loved one are under any obligation to commit to an Ark Behavioral Health treatment program when calling our helpline.

• Part of the art of staying sober (or moderate) long-term is knowing what these triggers are, and how to manage them.
• Above all else, being completely honest with yourself is vital to staying sober, with or without AA.
• Your sobriety is your own, and how you do it is entirely up to you.
• Depending on the severity of the addiction or substance being used, a medically supervised detox may be necessary to safely help you.
• Engaging in sober activities fills your time and helps you discover new aspects of yourself.
• Celebrate a week sober, a month sober, 3 months sober and so on.

How to Get Sober: A Guide to Sobriety

From her excessive drinking and smoking to disordered eating and falling for the wrong men, Caroline Knapp is seemingly attracted to anything and everything that isn’t good for her. She drinks to cope with life’s difficulties, like the death of her parents, but it’s only after twenty years of dependency that she sees how the “cure” to her stress and anxiety is the real problem. Divorce, abandonment, foreclosure and a mass shooting… Mishka Shubaly had plenty of reasons to wallow in drink and drugs, and he does so with wild abandon in I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You.

Flaka Ismaili

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