06 May 11 Surprising Benefits of Sobriety That Will Transform Your Life

Join Recovery Connection in celebrating your recovery with our sobriety calculator. As it turns out, I gained twenty pounds, lost all my frenetic energy and discovered I had been self-medicating a host of co-occurring disorders and syndromes which needed to be addressed. Understandably, I was disappointed and more than a little depressed. I share my experience because I do not want others to be blindsided like I was.

I don’t want to lie. But I also want to acknowledge all the hard work I’ve done.

Alcohol, while misleadingly used by some to hasten sleep onset, actually disrupts the sleep cycle. This is particularly true for the REM stage, which is crucial for mental restoration. While we all know the big wins like better health and no more hangovers, there are some unexpected perks too – like normal bathroom visits and not freaking out every time you pass a cop. Here’s a rundown of the top benefits our community has shared, proving that sobriety delivers in ways you might not have thought about. Embracing sobriety is a life-changing decision that offers numerous benefits across all aspects of your life.

Why Can’t I Stop Drinking Once I Start? 4 Major Reasons

Personally, I always thought drunk people were fun, and I didn’t want my own poop relationship with alcohol to stand out. I wanted to blend in nicely with a crowd who understood that sometimes you just want to drink your face off, or one that didn’t think anything was weird about a glass of noon wine. As you get going, keep a simple chart or use an app that tracks your progress. Same as you, I felt like a little bit of a failure after I ate some of that sobriety time, but I was definitely less of a fraud. If I was part of AA, I had to do it to respect the other people who’ve expressed a willingness to stop drinking and do the best they can, one day at a time.

• I thought I could control my psychedelic usage, but I cannot!
• There is a lot of stuff to process as you build your life in recovery every day, and that isn’t always going to be easy.
• If these concerns resonate with you, remember that sobriety doesn’t happen overnight—even if you try to rush it.
• Before I started drinking too much, I loved to write.
• Abstaining from alcohol can dramatically enhance your physical health.

Why You Get Diarrhea After Drinking Alcohol

Waking up without a hangover means you get to start your day feeling good, not trying to piece together the night before or chugging water to battle dehydration. Similar to being more productive, you will also find an abundance of free time. Without the cycle of planning, engaging in, and recovering from drinking activities, hours once dedicated to alcohol become available for other pursuits. You’ll probably start noticing more free time immediately as your evenings and weekends are no longer spent drinking or recovering from drinking. Visible changes such as clearer skin and healthier hair might start to be noticeable within a month, with more pronounced effects after several months of sobriety. Another one of the most celebrated benefits of sobriety is the dramatic improvement in sleep quality.

The most important relationship is with yourself. Choosing a life of sobriety means choosing a healthy life for you and keeping the promises you make to yourself. Maybe you even found yourself in legal trouble due to your drinking. Everyone has their own reasons why they stopped abusing substances. Alcohol and drugs are terrible for your immune system. When you don’t put anything unhealthy into your body, you won’t be so vulnerable to colds and stomach bugs.

I’ve Got Way More Time

Quit again and three days later polished off three bottles of wine. Just feeling really jittery and anxious and irritated at the slightest things. I’m grateful for not having a hangover today but overall this sucks. If you quit drinking and experience any new or worsening mental health symptoms, please consider therapy. Let’s address another reason life without alcohol feels boring. If you’ve created an entire social life around drinking, it is natural to be afraid of life without it.

• This contributes to a positive cycle of improved self-esteem and well-being.
• You have to understand what you’re feeling and WHY you’re feeling this way in order to change it.
• A life of substance abuse can mean strained relationships with family members, or it can be a deterrent to developing healthy relationships.

Even at my worst drinking, it barely negatively impacted my life. I’ve barely felt good, laughed, experienced beauty or really anything positive at all in weeks. Getting outside and communing with nature is scientifically proven to reduce stress and improve mental health and cognitive function in both https://ecosoberhouse.com/ kids and adults. Forming healthy connections with other people is an important of this process. It’s one of the many ways you will relearn how to enjoy life again without alcohol. So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything.

If your partner or close friend is inhibiting your goals of being sober, it may be time to say goodbye — at least for a while, and maybe for good. In other words, success is the blissful absence of all of the devastating consequences of a previous drug or alcohol habit. Those who being sober sucks have been invested in AA swear these promises are realized. Many newcomers wonder how long-time members can make these claims when sober members are still acting out. Sometimes, it is the little things you may not realize are having a significant impact on your ability to cope.

• So now I’m sober, and I have zero choice but to be me in all situations.
• Fortunately, there are more ways than ever to connect with like-minded people who are fellow travelers on this path.
• While this point of view is understandable, it’s also thankfully often misleading and entirely possible to overcome, as a member of FHE Health’s Alumni Program recently shared….
• Some will certainly remain, but even those aren’t necessarily long-game friendships.

Benefits of a Sobriety Tracker

The person who posed the question felt she had been misled. She believed that, even after decades of recovery, some people were «still messed up and acting out their issues.» So now I’m sober, and I have zero choice but to be me in all situations. They can feel overwhelming and like they will never end. Even if you are making one small choice to improve how you feel each day, like working out more or eating better, track it. You can then consistently look back, see how far you’ve come, and assess what you have accomplished along the way.