Having a Sober Holiday
The holidays are saturated with alcohol commercials, opportunities to drink, and even alcoholic gifts. For a person trying to live or create a sober lifestyle, just getting through the holiday season can be challenging.
Christmas And Addiction Recovery
Drinks Offered at Holiday Gatherings
You can put alcohol in fruit juice, coffee, eggnog, soda, or just on ice. It’s hard to think of a time when more types of alcoholic drinks are available. So many of them are made to taste like delicious desserts. Having a drink on a cold night is a cozy image for many adults. But for an alcoholic or drug addict, alcohol will bring anything but Christmas cheer. In fact, some alcoholic families give bottles of alcohol to each other for Christmas. They excuse and accept excessive drinking as a way of life. When someone breaks the mold or bucks the pattern, they are the one that stands out and often end up being isolated from everyone.
Emotional Ups and Downs
Christmas is a time when people get heightened emotions and expanded expectations about family gatherings, presents, their looks, money, and various other things. In most cases, people manage these emotions and fluctuations with minimal problems. A recovering alcoholic may find their emotions tweaked and tested during this period. Memories of a difficult past, recent troubles and challenges, adjusting to a new way of living – this can all be enough to test their coping skills. If the addict or alcoholic doesn’t have a solid support system or has gotten off their healthy sober habits somewhat, they could face a possible relapse. This could be just as challenging for a person just freshly discharged from a drug treatment outpatient program or drug rehab center.
Friends Coming Back To Town Wanting To Party
People often visit their home towns during the Christmas holiday season. Old friends from high school, college, or from previous jobs like to go out or have parties. A person living a sober lifestyle may have old temptations to fight when these friends come calling. “Come on, let’s go out like the old times. We had so much fun then.” Saying no can be so hard, hard enough that the recovering person may be tempted to take their chances and go along with them.
Drug and Alcohol Treatment Recovery Plans
So how does an alcoholic or recovering drug addict get through this festive yet challenging time? They get and stick to their drug treatment recovery plan. The holidays require self awareness and commitment, perhaps more than other times of the year. Even though this is supposed to be a time of wonder and happiness, many people (especially the newly sober) struggle to stay on track. With support and a good plan, a person in recovery can still enjoy this time of celebration.
Tags: drug treatment, drug-rehab, Having a Sober Holiday
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January 4th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Great job on the article. The holidays are a time where we typically have a lot of alcohol around more than usual. I saw more alcohol in the past week and 1/2 than in a whole semester of college, but thanks for the heads up and the great tips.