Planning on your first sober Thanksgiving this year? Congratulations! Choosing to stay sober during the holidays is an important part of sobriety and recovery. Family, friends, and financial stress can make turning down booze and drugs especially complicated during November and December. Check out these tips for ideas on how to stay on the straight and narrow while friends are filling up their wine glasses.
Sober Thanksgiving Tips
The holidays can be stressful for anyone, but this time of year can be especially challenging if you’re working on your sobriety. Follow these tips to keep up with your healthy lifestyle, no matter what’s going on around you.
Go to a meeting
- If you participate in a 12 step program like Alcoholic’s Anonymous, Thanksgiving and Christmas are not the days to skip out on your meeting routine. Getting to a meeting first thing in the morning is a great way to get ahead of the stress of the day. If you aren’t able to go to your regular meeting due to travel, look up a meeting in the area you’re visiting. Online meetings are also a helpful option. It’s also important to be in touch with your sponsor throughout the day. Let them know if you think you may need extra support to stay sober.
Get active
- Use exercise to get your endorphins flowing before you meet up with family members. When you already have serotonin and dopamine flowing through your body due to physical activity, it’s easier to say no to old unhealthy habits.
Be open
- If you feel comfortable talking about your recovery journey with family, don’t be afraid to let them know why you’re not drinking this year. Of course, if your family is unlikely to be supportive, it’s ok to keep to yourself on this topic. Tread lightly with family members who you suspect may have their issues with substance use. Talking about your recovery can be a trigger for them to pressure others into drinking.
Have an out
- Remember, you don’t need to stay in any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable or pressured to drink. Have an out prepared in case you feel you need to remove yourself from a family situation. While honesty is a great policy, a white lie that keeps you sober is better than honesty that leads to a drink. Saying you need to go meet up with a friend, or that you’re not feeling well, are valid ways to remove yourself from a situation that jeopardizes your hard work that has led to your recovery.
Ready To Change? We Can Help
If you’re ready for your first sober Thanksgiving, you’re already on the path to sobriety. If you’re just starting to think about getting into recovery from drug or alcohol abuse, we’re here to help. At Serenity Light Recovery, we understand how quickly addiction can happen. We help our clients find their way out of addiction, no matter how far they’ve fallen. There’s no such thing as being too gone for help. We offer several different therapies, including:
- Inclient drug rehab
- Outclient drug rehab
- Intensive outpatient rehab
- 30, 60, and 90 day extended care programs
- Gender-specific therapy
Call Serenity Light Recovery
If you’re ready for your first sober Thanksgiving, we’re here to help. You don’t have to work toward recovery alone. This doesn’t just have to be a sober Thanksgiving – with help, you can also have a sober Christmas, a sober New Year, and a sober life. A happy, healthy life can be your reality. You need to ask for help to make the changes that will move you toward recovery. Call Serenity Light Recovery at (281) 431-6700 to talk with a member of our admissions staff about how we can help you get your life back.
As our CEO, Heather’s main calling is to stay true to the vision of the organization, which is saving lives and striving to redefine statistics by raising the standard of care with evolving treatment methods. Heather studied psychology at LSU and both the main and Clear Lake campuses of the University of Houston, and she is a certified IASIS provider and CPI instructor. She’s been helping people in recovery since 2011. Heather’s motto to live by is “I am not what I’ve done; I am what I’ve overcome.”
