Most people get confused when it comes to quitting drugs and alcohol, because they see it as a process of elimination. They think that the primary focus is on eliminating drug use and then on avoiding all of those triggers and urges that might pop up in our lives that might make us relapse.
If recovery were that easy then we would likely see many more people find success with it. Unfortunately we don’t, as getting good outcomes in sobriety takes a ton of motivation and work.
One the difficult truths about overcoming addiction is that you have to put forth a tremendous effort at the start of your journey. If you want to achieve a successful life of sobriety then you have to put forth a huge initial effort. Many of us have learned that we can enjoy success in life by taking a more modest approach with most things, but this will not work in recovery. If you approach early sobriety with anything less than a 100 percent effort, you are going to relapse.
Now this can be particularly confusing because we often times will look to the seasoned veterans of recovery who have multiple years of sobriety and try to emulate their life. This will not work for the newcomer and it will cause them to relapse. If your sponsor has 10 years of sobriety and as a newcomer you try to copy his lifestyle exactly then you are going to relapse. Why? Because we change and evolve and grow in our recovery. What got us clean and sober will not keep us clean and sober….we have to keep changing as we go along. If we want to understand how to stop drinking then we need to realize that we will change as we progress in recovery.
Not only this, but the level of dedication and hard work you must put forth as a new person in recovery is extremely large. Don’t imagine that you can find some magic loophole to get to the serenity and peace that your sponsor has. That peace and serenity was not easy to come by, it was earned. It is not a magic gift that you can claim without putting in the footwork.
