Here are some tips for staying sober.
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1. Don’t underestimate your disease. Every single person does at first.
2. Take care of yourself spiritually. Be mindful of your connection to your higher power today.
3. Ignore the dismal relapse rates. You are creating your own success.
4. Make a zero tolerance policy with yourself concerning relapse. Don’t even allow your mind to go there.
5. Avoid fundamentalism, even in recovery. Rigid thinking and dogma can undermine your sobriety.
6. You are creating a life of recovery and you are responsible for ALL OF IT. Yes, others can help you. Their “help” is mere advice. It is up to you to recover.
7. Don’t confuse enthusiasm for action. Figure out what you need to do to stay sober and then do it.
8. Listen to what the relapsing addicts keep preaching. Then do the opposite.
9. Take care of your social network. Reach out to others in a meaningful way.
10. Figure out a way to help other addicts or alcoholics.
11. If you attend 12 step meetings, find one to start chairing. Consider H&I meetings (taking meetings into jails and treatment centers).
12. Use mindfulness and a heightened awareness to overcome ego. Use meditation to overcome self.
13. Practice forgiveness. Forgive all your past transgressors. Forgive yourself. You must do this to get long term relief from resentment.
14. Be aware of diminishing returns, and spread out your recovery efforts (i.e., don’t focus on just “spiritual” growth).
15. Rearrange all the furniture in your house. Anything to get through the night sometimes.
16. Clean your house from top to bottom. Same as above.
17. Go for a long walk.
18. Adopt a pet and care for it.
19. Eat a gourmet meal.
20. Cook a gourmet meal.
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21. Practice the arts. Paint, draw, sculpt, sing, dance. Etc.
22. See a therapist.
23. Work on a puzzle.
24. Connect with someone else who is hurting.
25. Start a project that is bigger than yourself.
26. Revisit an old hobby.
27. Teach someone something. (Anything!)
28. Learn something new each day. (Anything!)
29. Write in a daily journal.
30. Stretch yourself spiritually by suspending disbelief for a day.
31. Write a letter to your addiction where you say farewell to it.
32. Join a recovery forum online.
33. Start a free blog over at blogger.com and tell the world about your progress in recovery. Figure out your own tips on staying sober.
34. Reconnect with your family and spend time with them.
35. Go back to school.
36. Learn a new skill or trade.
37. Sponsor a newcomer.
38. Make a commitment to chair a meeting each week.
39. Celebrate the recovery of a friend.
40. Spend time with your family.
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41. Email the spiritual river guy and tell him your problems.
42. Celebrate your clean time with a cake.
43. Write out a gratitude list.
44. Read through your old journal entries and see how much you’ve changed.
45. Try a new form of meditation (or make up your own…there is no “wrong” here). Some of the best tips to stay sober come from within.
46. Write out a to-do list and cross each thing off as you accomplish it.
47. Always have a big goal in the back of your mind that is challenging for you, but would make your day if you met it.
48. Practice balance. Challenge your daily habits.
49. Practice humility. Always be in “learning mode.”
50. Forgive yourself and move on with your life.
51. Sit down and write 2 goals out for yourself: one big one and one little one. Keep the paper in your pocket.
52. Inspire someone else to grow. Challenge them to be a better person in some way. Encourage them through your own success.
53. Learn to relax. Find your quiet place of rejuvenation and return to it often.
54. Elevate your consciousness. Watch your own mind and see how it responds to events. Repeat often. Learn.
55. Find the beauty in life. Appreciate all of it. Be grateful for beauty itself.
56. Ask yourself with each decision: “Is this the healthiest choice for me right now?”
57. Quit smoking cigarettes already.
58. Be grateful for existence.
59. If you go to the same AA meetings all the time, switch it up and go to a completely new meeting.
60. Write a poem about how you are overcoming addiction.
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61. Turn off your television and read a book. Better: read recovery literature. Best: write your own recovery literature.
62. Use overwhelming force to conquer a goal.
63. Use the Sedona method to release emotions that are holding you back.
64. Write your bucket list. Then, act.
65. Figure out your life purpose.
66. Write out a fourth step and share it with your sponsor.
67. Take care of yourself physically. Exercise. Take a walk. No excuses.
68. Keep your priorities straight. Physical abstinence is number one. Simple and effective.
69. Keep a high price on your serenity. Don’t sacrifice it for just anyone and their whims.
70. Use a sponsor for stage 2 recovery. Let them guide you through holistic living.
71. Take care of yourself mentally. Go back to school. Get that degree.
72. Find your own path. It is your responsibility to do so.
73. Practice humility and stay teachable. Always be learning.
74. Go to long term treatment and be done with it. Best decision I ever made.
75. Don’t pin your hopes on a short stay in rehab. It takes more than that.
76. Call your sponsor.
77. Get a sponsor.
78. Use a zero tolerance policy when it comes to self-pity. Never allow it for yourself ever again. Ever. It is poison.
79. Read recovery literature.
80. Join a recovery forum.
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81. Use outpatient treatment if that works for you. Take it as seriously as possible and connect with the others in your group.
82. Meditate.
83. Pray.
84. Go out for coffee with a friend in recovery.
85. Find your passion.
86. Work out.
87. Join a church.
88. Volunteer.
89. Take care of yourself emotionally. Don’t get knocked too far off your square.
90. Stay vigilant against potential relapse. The disease can find many routes (gambling, prescription drugs, sex, etc.).
91. Go to a meeting.
92. Don’t pin your hopes on long term treatment. It takes a lifetime of learning for alcoholics and recovering drug addicts to recover.
93. Use long term strategic thinking. Care for yourself, network with others, and pursue conscious growth.
94. Don’t ask “why me?” Instead, ask “how can I create the life I really want now?”
95. Call a friend in recovery.
96. Sit down and write out a gratitude list.
97. Don’t live in fear of relapse. I wasted 5 years on this. Embrace the creative life and know you are strong in recovery.
98. Get extreme. Figure out what you need to do to stay sober…then double it and add ten. That’s how hard you have to push yourself.
99. Raise the bar. Stop settling. Use your talents as a gift to the world and make a difference in some way.
100. Live consciously. Set deliberate goals and go after them with overwhelming force.
101. Embrace the creative life in recovery and live holistically.
So those are my staying sober tips….anyone got any more?
If you found this helpful, please share it with others.
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there Liddia.
Glad you’re here!
It works if you work it!
Yes it does work if you work but I would go further than that and point out that virtually any program will work if you work it.
Take a hypothetical program that keeps you sober by making you stand on your head all day long. Technically this will work if you really work it. So will the 12 step program. So will the creative theory.
So just pointing out that a program will work if a person genuinely tries to apply it is not saying much…any program can be designed with abstinence as the goal and then this cliche will apply to it quite nicely. This doesn’t prove anything though and we need to look deeper at what results we are really achieving across the board with a recovery program. What is the real success rate? If a program fails for the vast majority of participants is it really a success?
Sometimes I just think we can do better and that’s why I push people to create something in their lives that goes beyond traditional 12 step dogma….
Hey Patrick,
Your recovery tips are great! I think everybody in recovery ought to have their own personalized list. While I would use the majority of your tips, not all of them are appropriate for me
(i.e. quitting smoking). I can’t wait to have my own list. When I do, I will certainly share it with the world! Thanks again for a great idea.
Here’s a program of my own creation that has proved effective.
Yes, any sort of new ritual proves very useful in breaking old rituals. At the risk of sounding like an old hippy…its very important to keep your blood/energy/chi circulation healthy. You know that feeling when you can feel your own pulse in your fingertips? Thats what your going for… use tai chi, other martial arts or exercise sports for this and do it within an hour of waking up. No excuses.
Get up at 7:00, drink your coffee, and go shoot baskets at the neighborhood park. Kick a soccerball against a wall for a while, ride your bike HAVE FUN ! Dance in the damn shower afterwards, its fun and loosens up your stiff muscles from laying still for 8 hours.
I was in active narcotic addiction for 10 years, and a program involving physical improvement to yourself will make you understand your own body and respect it more. When you look in the mirror and see a body that you sculpted through your program of diet and exercise…well I’ll let you be the judge of how that feels. Respect yourself and your incredible human body. It doesn’t need anything but refreshing sunshine, food, drink, exercise and some sort of sexual outlet. Keep telling yourself this to rid yourself of your old, tragically incorrect belief system. Its working for me. I love all of you, brothers and sisters. Take care of yourselves, then the good things come.
Hi there Dando
I like your ideas about living and I think they work well for long term recovery. In the beginning people might need to focus a bit more heavily on staying sober for a day at a time and also on networking with others in recovery for added support.
But as we progress in recovery I think we should all start moving towards the image of long term sobriety that you just painted there.
In fact, at the treatment center that I work at, a Tai Chi instructor comes in twice each week and does a one hour class with the clients….they do some basic forms and also a lot of the breathing and movements. Very powerful stuff for some people, others who are not ready yet just shrug it off as being irrelevant to their recovery….
Okay Patrick. I’ve made my own list. I will share it with you before I blog about it. Thanks!
Patrick and all,
This site ought to be a discussion forum, it is great. I too have wasted a lot of time in fear of relapse. I have also wasted a lot of time feeling inferior because I needed to get sober at 28; I am almost 45 and still feel shame at being “in recovery”. Sad. I need to work on this.
I so agree about the diet and exercise angle. A good diet and regular exercise along with meditation has done wonders for me. It is huge and was among the first creative things I added to my life. That and stopping smoking. I saw people in recovery dropping like flies from cancer and sensed that changes in my life were needed if I was going to enjoy a quality of life that was meaningful. People in recovery sometimes forget that there is a cause and effect; that a diet of caffeine, cigs and cheese burgers might have someting to do with feeling depressed and miserable all the time.
Hi there Mary Ann
Good job on seeking out a holistic approach to your recovery. It is not a conventional path but for me it has been most rewarding…
For Micheal,
Love Jen
Just put my 29 year old tonight to a recovery home. Will send him this list.. Good list, but I can also mention one more.. a prayer to who ever you beleive is your higher power or a visit to a church. I hope he can add 100 more reasons and way to live with his addiction…
i want rocovery my note book toshiba nb100 haw i do it one key recovery
Hi there Budiman
I think you might misunderstand this website a bit….if you want to recovery your Toshiba notebook, I would call Toshiba tech support, I’m sure they can walk you through it….
If you are interested in addiction recovery, please come back and let us know!
Thank you for this list and site!
This is a wonderful list not only to start with, but to help one see how far they have come in recovery. I’ve been in recovery for two years and by placing some of these positives in my life, I don’t resemble the old life. I will keep trying to follow these because recovery for me is about change and seeing life alive again. It is a gift just to be here.
Thanks,
God bless David, glad you got something out of it. Yes, it is a gift to be here. I need to remember that too….so thank you.
Great tips and advice. It’s good for people to have a list that they can refer to again and again. These tips can help people with all kinds of problems and procrastinations.
Thanks,
urbanminister
http://twitter.com/urbanminister
Thank you.
Hi Jason
You are welcome!
Why is it that so many people underestimate their addictions and diseases? Is it because they are prideful or what?
Thanks,Your article was great.I know it will help me in recovery.
I have decided today that I will give up drinking. It has created so much pain physically and mentally that I have had enough. I don’t want to rely on it anymore!! I want more out of life!!
I am grateful that I came across this website, I know that the tips will assist in my road to recovery.
Thanks
I am reading your words of wisdom and I believe that I have become complance in my 16 years of recovery. So today I challenge my self to grow in every possible area of my life.
Thank you
Sheila
Hey lifelonger, I hope you are doing ok and staying sober.
Thank you patrick for the list. I need all the help I can get
I’d much rather see #18 say: “Adopt” a pet…not “Buy” a pet.