The holiday season is a time filled with joy for many individuals. Going through the holiday season while maintaining sobriety can be stressful, especially if drinking is your regular means of celebration.
Being surrounded by other individuals who choose to drink can help encourage you to stray away from recovery. It is essential to utilize the skills that you learned in treatment and sober living to maintain your sobriety this holiday season while still enjoying your celebrations.
Learn how to have an enjoyable sober holiday while surrounded by others who may be drinking. This period of celebration does not have to be a major stressor but rather an opportunity. Take this chance to implement your skills and improve your family relationships. Sobriety can still be accomplished through these celebrations.
Common Holiday Struggles
Various stress factors arise during the holiday season for everyone. As enjoyable as these celebrations may be, they come with planning and stress to ensure everything runs smoothly. These struggles that commonly occur through the holiday season may impact your sobriety maintenance. Understanding the potential stressors that may arise can help you mentally prepare for them before the situation occurs.
Others Who Are Drinking
A common obstacle that individuals in sober living may encounter through the holiday season is related to the crowd surrounding them during this time. Your friends and family that you celebrate with may choose to have a few drinks. This can be significantly more difficult for you to stay away from substances over the holiday season. Whether these individuals are supportive of your sobriety or not, they may choose to celebrate by drinking, even in your presence.
Holiday Planning
Planning everything to prepare for the holiday season can be a huge stressor for many individuals. If you are not in charge of the preparation of any kind, this stressor may be mild. The stress can be extreme if you choose to host holiday events.
While attending events with family and friends, you may be asked to bring something. This may be a present for a gift exchange, a dish to share, or something else to help out with the celebration. For some, this may induce an extra level of stress. You may feel concerned about what to bring and ensuring you bring something that everyone will enjoy.
Many of us have these feelings when we are asked to bring a dish or a present for another individual. While these feelings are valid, they are often setting us up for unrealistic expectations. The judgment we will receive will be more from ourselves than others in the end. Let go of this stress and bring something you enjoy. If it turns out badly, laugh about it. This is a season of celebration, not sorrow.
Engaging With Others
It is common for individuals in recovery to reach a state of self-isolation at some point in their journey. While there are many dangers involved with self-isolating and it is essential to be mindful of them. You may be reaching out to others in an attempt to expand your social support system. Even with this focus, engaging with a large group at once can be overwhelming. This is especially concerning for individuals who struggle with social anxiety.
You may receive various questions regarding what you have been doing or how your life is going. It can be difficult to find a balance between telling the truth, feeling comfortable, and not oversharing. You are in charge of the information you share with extended friends and family regarding your recovery process. Dealing with these repeated conversations may bring about many negative emotions if not regulated.
Tips for Managing Holiday Stressors
As stressful as this season may be, it can also be highly enjoyable. Utilizing these skills, you can maintain your sobriety and stay on track to success. Regardless of the obstacles that come your way, you still have the skills to manage them.
You may desire to face the problem head-on or avoid situations that may set you up for potential relapse through the holiday season. Whatever you determine is in your best interest, there are ways to stay on the path to success in your recovery.
Have a Plan
If you are aware that you likely will encounter other individuals who are drinking to celebrate, have a predetermined plan in place of how you will best manage these stress factors. Mentally preparing yourself for these obstacles allows you to feel confident in following through with the plan you have in place and sticking to your goals throughout recovery.
If someone offers you a drink, have a plan in place for how you will respond with confidence. Being surrounded by others drinking and celebrating can test your accountability. Have a plan in place for how you will manage these moments and still engage in the celebration without relapsing.
Having a plan is especially important when dealing with the social aspect of the holidays. When people ask what you have been up to or how things are going, have a predetermined response ready. These simple questions can often throw people off of their routines and disrupt their thought patterns due to uncertainty in their responses.
Thinking about how to best respond to these simple conversations can ensure you are prepared and feel comfortable in answering these questions. Just as having a recovery plan or exit plan is vital for sobriety maintenance, having a plan established to cope with the stress of holidays is important as well.
Remember Your Progress
It can be easy to dismiss the work you have been through during a period of celebration. You may feel that a little slip-up will not matter much in the long run. While it is possible to move past a relapse and continue your success, we recommend avoiding this at all costs. Holding yourself accountable through these situations can help provide you with the confidence you need to make it through future hardships.
Knowing that you made it through a holiday season with external factors working to pull you off the path to sobriety can be extremely rewarding. You have all the ability you need to refrain from substance use this holiday season. Remember the progress you have made so far. Put your skills to use in the real world and continue to excel. Do not allow this one situation to disrupt your current pathway to success.
Along with remembering the progress you have made so far, it is also essential to remind yourself of your goals moving forward. Remembering these goals can help put you in a motivated state of mind, encouraging you to continue your progress regardless of the hardships that present themselves. Having a reason to disengage from these potential opportunities creates a sense of purpose behind your actions. This purpose can be extremely motivating to continue your progress and remember how much work you have put in to get to where you are today.
Remember the True Purpose of Holidays
At times, the holiday season can appear to be a simple excuse to drink, party, and enjoy the company of others. Because of the celebrations that take place, many of us lose sight of the true holiday spirit. Think about the core purpose of the holiday season and what the celebrations mean to you.
Taking the time to remember what the true meaning of celebrating holidays is, you can develop a sense of comfort in maintaining sobriety through this time. Each holiday has a historical meaning behind it. Learn about why the holiday was started and how you can celebrate it with honor. Think of how you celebrated holidays as a child. There are many ways the celebrate without relapsing.
Utilize Your Skills
As stressful as this holiday season may be, it is an opportunity for you to put your skills into practice. When these holiday stressors arise, it is a perfect chance to use your skills to regulate your stress. Coping with the potential pressures of relapse can be incredibly rewarding.
Using relapse prevention skills is one of the most important focuses for those in recovery throughout the holiday season. While you may encounter various opportunities through your experience in your sober living home to practice relapse prevention skills, this is a prime opportunity to apply them to the outside world. Identifying the triggers that may influence you to relapse and remembering the full meaning of recovery and the holidays can help you overcome these obstacles.
You may find that you need to implement additional coping skills as the holiday approaches. If you feel unprepared to manage the stressors that may arise and refrain from substance use, additional coping skills may help you. Understand what skills you may be lacking that are essential in sobriety maintenance through the holiday season. Remember that your recovery toolbox can always be adjusted to meet your needs and to help you accomplish sobriety.
Communicate Your Needs
You may feel the need for extra support through the holiday season. If your family members are choosing to engage in the use of substances to celebrate or you feel overwhelmed with the preparation for the holiday season, communicate with your family.
Let them know what you are worried about. Ask them to assist you in the preparation if it feels overwhelming. Ask for support in holding yourself accountable to refrain from drinking. They may be able to influence the behavior of others and lower the opportunities for relapse to occur in your family celebrations.
Retain Your Routine
One common challenge of the holiday season is the drastic changes in routine. Maintaining a healthy routine is highly critical in sober living, as it helps you establish a foundation to move forward. Engaging in the various holiday celebrations, your routine will likely be thrown off balance.
Trying to retain as much of your daily routine as possible can help ease the transition back to regular life after the holiday season. While you may not be able to keep all your routines intact, keeping your routine as close to normal as possible can help you regulate the stressors of the holidays.
With the upcoming holiday season, various stress factors may arise. While the holiday is a time to celebrate, the holiday festivities may have a negative influence on your recovery. This is a perfect opportunity to put into practice the skills that you have gained through recovery and your sober living home. Use your relapse prevention skills to help decide which parties you feel comfortable attending and how to handle other people who are drinking to celebrate the holidays around you. There are many ways to celebrate the holiday season without giving up on your sobriety goals. To learn more about how to manage the stress factors involved with the holiday season, reach out to Real Recovery Sober Living at (727) 290-9156.
