It’s so easy to waver on what you want during addiction. It’s easy to know on the one hand that going through alcohol detox is a good idea, but then a minute later, when you’re suddenly in an argument with your spouse, drinking sounds like a good idea.
On the one hand, you want to get sober. You can see how it’s affecting your life. On the other hand, drinking has a compulsory feel to it that you seem to be drinking even when there’s a part of you that knows better. A compulsion is an irresistible urge to behave in a certain way, especially against your own conscious wishes. If you’re drinking compulsively, you’re likely in the cycle of addiction.
Sobriety Will Stand Firm
Yet, although you might be wavering, which is common in addiction, sobriety isn’t. Sobriety is standing firm, always waiting for you when you’re ready to meet it. Because the definition of sobriety is clear:
Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels, or effects from mood-altering drugs. It is the continued abstinence from drug use, including alcohol. It is also considered to be the natural state of a human being given at a birth.
In other words, sobriety means no drinking or drugging. Although you may still be going back and forth, although life’s events still trigger you to drink, sobriety means no drinking whatsoever.
The good thing is that there are a variety of ways to get yourself clear to meet sobriety face to face. For instance, in the Alcoholics Anonymous community, the way to get clear about sobriety when you’re just beginning is to attend 90 meetings in 90 days, meaning you participate in a 12-step meeting every day for 3 months.
Living at a Residential Treatment Center
Another way is to live at a residential addiction treatment center. An addiction treatment center typically includes services such as drug counseling to address substance abuse, therapy to treat any presenting mental illness, such as depression or anxiety, which are common to co-exist with addiction. An addiction treatment center might also include individual and family psychotherapy, medication, and support groups. Depending upon the type of drug rehabilitation center, there might also be strong communication among the psychiatrist, psychologist, family members, and other professionals in your life in order to provide the best treatment. As you can imagine, having this kind of support can also facilitate breaking the cycle of addiction and strengthening your ability to stay sober.
Meet Sobriety with Motivational Interviewing
Yet, another way to support your ability to meet sobriety and stay there is a powerful therapeutic tool called Motivational Interviewing. It’s a type of therapy that focuses directly on your wavering. That is, this therapy tries to help you resolve your tendency to say yes to treatment one day and yes to drinking the next. The examination and resolution of this ambivalence is the focus of Motivational Interviewing. A therapist using this approach is intentionally attempting to direct therapy towards helping you bring your wavering to an end. Motivational Interviewing is goal oriented with the focus of bringing about a change in your behavior. Specifically, this change in behavior is sobriety.
Find a Community
Another way to continue to meet sobriety each day is to find a community. This is perhaps one of the greatest benefits of residing at an addiction treatment center or regularly attending 12-step meetings. You are living with others who want to meet sobriety too. Men and women at a treatment center or at a 12-step meeting can support you through relationships with them, shared personal stories, and providing a level of camaraderie that family and friends who are not on the same path cannot. Often, sober communities and groups allow for supportive friendships to form and provide an ambiance of encouragement.
Although you might be wavering on staying sober, there is immense support out there waiting for you, ready to walk you closer and closer to “continued abstinence from drug use, including alcohol”.