The vacation season is a special time of joy and festivity. Yet, it can be an extremely delicate and stressful time for those who are recovering from dependence on alcohol and/ or medicines. Then are many simple tips that can make the leaves more tolerable for those floundering with sobriety.
1. Remember the significance of the leaves
This time of time is a major marketable event for America’s retailers. It’s also a time for special fests of family and goodwill. Keeping the leaves as a festivity of family or your religious beliefs puts all of our other prospects for the vacation season in proper perspective.
2. Don’t insulate
The leaves can be the loneliest time of the time for the recovering addict. On one hand, we’re reminded of all the connections we’ve meddled up. Some will spend Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas visited by recollections of loved bones and musketeers they’ve alienated with destructive and manipulative gestures. We know, too, if we want to keep our sobriety, we must avoid people who are still using alcohol and medicines. What’s the result? Take advantage of the new sober familiarity. Reach out to those around you and use this vacation season s as a special occasion to get to know them better.
3. Use the leaves as a special occasion for making amends
Rather than dwelling on the failed connections of your life, make a list of those people and consider ways to reconnect with them. While it isn’t always possible to make amends to all of them, there are presumably many of them, especially family members. Chance are some of them who would consider hearing from you a special gift this vacation season. Talk to a counselor or guarantor about this and get their input on taking this important step in your recovery process.
4. Give gifts from the heart
It’s easy to feel a cargo of guilt and shame about not having coffers to give presents and other commemoratives of love to those around you. There are other types of “ gifts” that can be just as meaningful as a simple card ( indeed manual), a phone call or visit, advancing a helping hand with a special design. There’s a nearly unlimited number of ways to show people around you that you watch that don’t bear a lot of cash. Be creative.
5. Partake your passions
The leaves can bring back a host of confusing passions and recollections. Occasionally we’re tempted to dwell on “ good times” that involved drinking and medicine use. For some, this time of time provokes painful nonage recollections if we grew up in a worried home. Others witness loads of stress, disappointment, and loneliness during the leaves. The worst thing to do is to keep all these passions bottled up outside. Find trusted sober musketeers and support groups where you can partake in what’s going on within you. This is a sure-fire way to keep them in perspective and work through all these feelings informative and healthy ways.
6. Find healthy ways to celebrate the season
For some of us, it’s hard to imagine a Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve without alcohol and medicines. But, for recently sober people, this time of time can be a chance to rediscover how to have fun without mind-altering chemicals. Take many moments to find out what events are passing in your community – and share in them!
7. Have realistic prospects
Most post-holiday disappointments are the result of awaiting too much. You may find this vacation season isn’t the instigative and joyful experience others feel to make it out to be. Perhaps no bone sounded to have reached out to you in any special way. Perhaps you won’t handle all the stress of the leaves as you would have liked to. So what? Perhaps making it through the leaves without using medicines or alcohol was the most significant thing you did. Yet, this, in itself, is a major accomplishment.