Avoiding social situations that prominently feature drinking is crucial, especially for those early in recovery. Consider limiting time spent with family members who may trigger cravings or emotional distress. Knowing that you will be without https://ecosoberhouse.com/ family during the holidays, you will need to make a plan to successfully navigate the holiday season to prevent both loneliness and being alone. Filling your days with meaningful, rewarding activities that involve being around other people will help you avoid both.
What’s included
Here are my most tried-and-true tips to help you through this stretch of the year. Some family events and traditions revolve around drinking alcohol, such as parties featuring lots of festive alcoholic drinks or drinking games that the whole family participates what is Oxford House in. During the holidays, people tend to overindulge too, which can lead to binge drinking. The holidays are busy, so sometimes it can be difficult to make time for daily meditation, journaling, AA meetings, exercising, and other things that keep you grounded in your recovery. You deserve to feel joy at this time of year just like everyone else, so keep these tips in mind as you navigate your way through the holiday season and through your early recovery.
Guide to Alcohol Education for Kids
The priority is for the person in early recovery to have the best opportunity to stay sober through the holidays and for the entire family to enjoy this special time together. Every emotionally challenging situation a sober young person is able to face, the stronger his or her recovery will be. One of the primary objectives in recovery is to get to the point of being able to navigate challenging social situations.
If you’re a family member or friend hosting someone in early recovery:
At Virtue Recovery Center, we understand the importance of accessible care. That’s why we’re in-network with numerous private insurance companies, ensuring that your journey to recovery is supported from the start. Let us help you quickly and easily verify your insurance coverage. To make the season meaningful, focus on creating new traditions, spending time with loved ones, volunteering, and practicing gratitude. Triggers can also be completely independent of substance use, such as experiencing relational conflict with a partner. However, one thing that all triggers have in common is that they trigger emotional distress, which can lead to an emotional relapse.
- Explore family discussions on alcohol to guide parents and reframing holidays in early recovery support kids through tough conversations on drinking.
- However, individuals in recovery can benefit from realizing that they still deserve to feel holly and jolly this season, regardless of their decision to remain sober.
- Thinking about how you will handle the tempting situations you will encounter over the holidays will help you make a plan that will allow you to navigate them successfully.
- However, for those in addiction recovery, it can bring a mix of emotions and challenges.
Attend a meeting, call a sponsor, or find supportive friends and family. You are not responsible for your family member’s recovery during the holidays or ever, but you can ask them what you can do to help them. They may say they do not need anything, and that is OK. You can also decline a request from your loved one if you don’t feel comfortable, “I love you, and I can’t do that” is a legitimate answer. Ideally the holiday plans you make meet the needs of everyone as much as possible. Getting creative and increasing healthy patterns of communication is way to show you love them.
12-step programs create an environment that promotes emotional safety, where people have the experience of feeling understood and accepted. The winter holidays are usually a time of celebration, but for those in recovery, they can also bring added challenges. One of the most valuable sections of a relapse prevention plan requires an individual to identify potential triggers.
How Drug and Alcohol Abuse Affects Families
In addition, we only use authoritative, trusted, and current sources. Then there is the actual physical distancing of being alone or separate from all other people. However, you can be alone and not feel lonely, and you can feel lonely even when you are not alone.
However, just because these emotions can be too much to handle, they are not excuses to rationalize a slip. The disease of addiction doesn’t make exceptions for the holidays. Take a tip from Taylor Swift and push the nasty digs and dips in mood aside.
The following will provide some tips for maintaining recovery over the holidays, whether you’re in active treatment or long-term recovery. Another aspect of reframing holidays in early recovery an effective relapse prevention plan for the holidays acknowledges an individual’s engagement in continuing treatment. Individuals in early recovery are likely involved with an intensive treatment program. However, some facilities may offer reduced sessions or reduced time spent at the facility throughout the holiday season.
