Maintain Sobriety During The Holidays

Abstinence is a lifestyle, and deciding how to maintain sobriety calls for a proactive attitude. You develop it during rehab with the help of addiction specialists. More importantly, you need to cultivate it on a daily basis. Do you know how to maintain holiday sobriety during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities?

For many people in recovery, the holidays represent one of the biggest threats to their sobriety that they will face all year. How you decide to cope with the holidays may have an enormous effect on your ability to remain sober throughout the year.

What Makes the Holiday Season Difficult?

During the holidays, alcohol seems to be everywhere. If you visit with old friends or members of your former peer group, there may be drugs as well. Learning how to maintain holiday sobriety during Christmas celebrations against this backdrop can be very challenging. That said, it’s possible to navigate the holiday season with a relapse prevention plan with a drug and alcohol addiction program.

How to Maintain Holiday Sobriety during Christmas and Beyond

Choose your course of action before the invitations even arrive. In some situations, it might mean missing out on an event that presents too many challenges.

For example, if you know that partying with your peer group will involve drug or alcohol abuse, avoid the gathering altogether. It’s just not worth the risk. In other scenarios, the venue of the party may be a bar, which could also spell trouble.

If you do accept an invitation, have an exit plan if things get tricky for you. Just knowing that you are not stuck in an awkward situation can significantly reduce anxiety levels. Some people find it helpful to take an accountability partner with them. This individual is typically a friend in recovery or someone who understands your struggles.

Agree ahead of time to have a signal that tells you when it’s time to get out. Don’t worry about whether others will be critical of you leaving suddenly. It doesn’t matter what they think. You have something you need to protect at all costs: your sobriety.

Learning how to maintain sobriety may also introduce you to the techniques of mindfulness-based relapse prevention. Careful preparation before an event is a crucial technique. You combine meditation with the lessons you learned during cognitive behavioral therapy for a good outcome.

For example, you might journal all the reasons why you want to stay sober. In the process, you acknowledge that you will have cravings and temptations. When you do face the temptation to have that one drink, promise yourself to wait half an hour. Cravings typically pass during the waiting time, and you’ll once again feel fully in charge.

The Relapse Happened–Now What?

All is not lost. Because addiction is a chronic disease, relapse is something that can happen (and it can happen to anyone). The answer may now involve a brief return to rehab. There, you work with an addiction specialist who helps you get back on track.

Modalities might include:

• Outpatient scheduling that lets you continue with your regular activities
• Mindfulness-based treatment to help you center yourself again
• Individual therapy, which encourages you to examine the situations leading up to the relapse
• Group therapy as a way of reconnecting with peers and receiving support and encouragement
• Behavioral therapeutic interventions that focus on dysfunction in thought patterns or actions

Maybe you feel that you need more assistance than an outpatient setting can provide when rediscovering how to maintain sobriety. In this case, consider a partial hospitalization program or a residential rehab. For more tips on how to maintain holiday sobriety during Christmas, talk to the therapists at Beaches Recovery. Call 866.605.0532 now to connect with a specialist.