Sobriety Won’t Always Be So Hard




There was a self-sabotaging thought that frequently ran through my head when I first quit drinking: “If it’s this hard to get through just a few days, how will I ever manage to stick with sobriety for the rest of my life?” It’s a sentiment that I’ve heard echoed many times from other recovering addicts. It’s also a very dangerous line of thinking, which can put our sobriety at serious risk.Early sobriety — especially the first few weeks — was without question extremely hard for me. Some days truly felt impossible, and even all these years later, I’m still sometimes amazed that I made it through them.

I sure tried hard to find excuses to go back to drinking. I told myself that if sobriety was this hard, I’d never last in the long run, so I might as well just go back to drinking. Why torture myself with the painful withdrawal symptoms, relentless cravings, and overwhelming depression, when I knew that eventually, I was going to relapse anyway?When newly sober addicts start to go down this path, the standard response is to take sobriety one day at a time. This is great advice.Worrying about remaining sober for years, or even just weeks or months, is almost always going to feel overwhelming for someone who just entered recovery. It’s much easier to narrow our focus down to the present.