While we have grown accustom to the changes that COVID has created in our everyday lives, the call to minimize gatherings over the holidays adds additional stress. You may have to create boundaries with family or you may find that you are isolated through the holidays which may increase your risk of relapse. The simple idea of going holiday shopping can be stressful on its own.
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- For people in the early stages of recovery from alcohol addiction, these beverages should be avoided.
- The choice to stay home or leave early is a powerful assertion of self-care.
- This means always bringing my own vehicle to holiday events, ensuring I can leave when I need to without relying on others.
- Stop Covering Up – Enabling is also when family members try to hide their loved ones’ substance use problems from others.
- The holidays may bring different challenges, depending on where you are in your addiction recovery journey.
Strong connections create safety and resiliency which is fundamentally needed as a part of recovery. For those of us in early recovery, the holidays can remind us of past rifts and wrongs, but they also present new opportunities for mending broken relationships. Healthy boundaries and clear communication can help start the holiday season with a clean slate for forging future connections. So whether or not your holidays are all the way happy, here’s to a holiday season that is healthy in recovery. The choice to stay home reframing holidays in early recovery or leave early is a powerful assertion of self-care. Initially, there may be worry that your absence would disappoint others.
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- I felt sorry for myself and isolated myself completely for a couple of days.
- Is there a spot somewhere that you can quietly slip away to and get a call with your safety net?
- Disconnections within the family setting are commonplace, but that doesn’t mean you, at this vulnerable time in your life, need to step into the fray.
- At the most basic level, the person in recovery is the primary focus of treatment.
We offer a teletherapy service that allows you to receive treatment for substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health conditions from the comfort of your home. It can be a way to address mental health concerns like depression, loneliness and isolation while staying safe during the pandemic. In the middle of a party where it seems like everyone is having fun and that alcohol and drugs are part of that fun, your reasons for staying sober can sometimes seem to just fade away. The holiday season revolves around unrelenting themes of gratitude, abundance, and celebration.
Don’t take boundary-setting personally.
Increasing awareness of potential social or environmental triggers can help communication and planning. Loved ones in recovery learn that triggers are “people, places or things” that are linked to their patterns of use. Exposure or access to drugs or alcohol that were previously used can ignite urges and cravings. Stress can intensify the need to self-medicate and escape from painful emotional states.
Spending the Holidays Without Family
And do not pause https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/meditation-for-addiction-recovery-methods-and-techniques/ usual routines just because it’s the holidays. Managing holiday pressures becomes far more manageable with self-care – and the temptation to relapse is less. This means always bringing my own vehicle to holiday events, ensuring I can leave when I need to without relying on others. Slippery scenarios are less daunting when I know there’s a way out. The first step is to acknowledge the role alcohol has traditionally played in holiday celebrations. And a sip of alcohol does not mean a complete derailment of your sober holiday.