Many recovering alcoholics will often look back at the way they viewed rehab before they started their recovery journey and laugh. For an alcoholic in the midst of an addiction, life is often dark, hopeless and full of constant horror stories.
However, despite how awful this way of life might be, alcoholics dread what life will be like after they become sober. Most alcoholics tend to make the same types of statements when trying to rationalize why sobriety isn’t for them.
- “I’ll be so boring!”
- “I won’t be able to have fun, socialize or go on dates.”
- “I’ll have to change my whole personality.”
- “I’ll lose all my friends.”
- “I’ll never be able to have fun again.”
Anyone who’s successfully completed alcohol rehab can tell you how ridiculous these statements are, especially considering that an addict’s life is such a miserable life to live. However, this still doesn’t always successfully convince alcoholics that rehab is the right choice for them. To help you understand why life is so much better on the other side, here are five things you’ll be able to do after a successful stay at an alcohol rehab program.
1. Have a Real Social Life
Alcoholics frequently convince themselves that their social life is great because they’re always surrounded by so many people. However, many alcoholics mistake drinking buddies for friends. Real friends have meaningful conversations, help each other and engage in fun activities with one another. If the only people you socialize with are the ones you see each night in bars, those aren’t friends. If you want to have a real social life with deep and meaningful connections, you can’t form those bonds through the haze of constant inebriation.
2. Learn How To Cope in a Healthy Way
Alcoholics use alcohol to cope with unwanted emotions. While many convince themselves that they use alcohol because they enjoy it, the truth is usually that they need to be inebriated to avoid painful memories and emotions. During a recovery journey, many alcoholics frequently feel depressed, as they have to confront difficult emotions without being able to turn to their usual crutch. However, if you persevere, you’ll one day be able to deal with emotional pain and unhappiness in healthy ways. Drinking one’s problems away only makes them worse.
3. Do Things That You’re Proud To Do
No one who spends every morning feeling hungover and every night in a bar is proud of the way they’ve spent their day. In order to feel a sense of satisfaction, you have to do things that bring you a feeling of accomplishment and pride. This can be anything from a job you love or simply a hobby that brings you excitement. After rehab, it can take a while to discover what makes you genuinely happy and proud of yourself. However, you’ll eventually figure it out and you’ll be able to find a true sense of happiness that only comes from accomplishing something.
4. Accomplish Your Goals
While there are a few high-functioning alcoholics in the world who are able to seemingly be successful despite their addiction, most addicts are not able to accomplish their goals. Alcoholism takes a huge toll on both the body and the mind. It also has a tendency to eat up a lot of hours of the day, as an alcoholic is usually too hungover to be productive or too drunk to be productive. Alcoholics frequently ignore the goals they’ve set for themselves, trapped in a cycle of vowing to get started “tomorrow” and opting instead to drink the evening away. When you take alcohol out of the picture, you can actually do the work and put in the time in order to turn your dreams into reality.
5. You Can Finally Feel Good
Alcoholics trick themselves into believing that drinking feels good. While it might feel good after one or two drinks, few people feel great after binge-drinking. Your mind is hazy and the whole world feels like it’s spinning. Plus, hangovers can make a person feel like they’re dying. When you’re sober, you can discover what it feels like to truly feel good. Feeling good comes from good health, not a bottle. Feeling good is the result of getting good sleep, exercising and doing things that make you feel accomplished.
If you’re ready to stop feeling lousy and to start feeling truly good, contact us today at 844-639-8371 to get more information about how you can take your life back from alcohol.