One of the things that people tend to rarely stress when it comes to addiction and recovery from it is the end goal. Yes, it is important to make sure that individuals recover from an addiction, and that they can live a happy, peaceful, and productive life. But when does one know if they are fully recovered, and have, in fact, reached total sobriety? In recovery, it is very rare that you will ever reach full sobriety, even if you have gone more than two decades without ever touching a substance. The fact of the matter is that no matter how long it has been since you picked up a bottle or a needle, the moment you let your guard down and start believing that there is no longer any need to fight against addiction daily is the moment when you become the most vulnerable to a relapse. The human mind is odd in that way. Once you have become addicted to a substance, it takes a long, long time to reverse that addiction into an aversion, and while addiction treatment centers are about as foolproof as they come, there is no definitive way to ensure that addiction never rears its ugly head again. If you were to revert back to even considering using a substance again it could send all of your hard work right down the drain, forcing you to start the process over once more. Although there is no definitive way to tell whether you are completely sober or not (and no suggestions as to how to find out), there are a few ways to tell if you have become strong enough to not have to worry about a relapse as frequently as you may have used to. The first way is to gauge whether you have effectively found a healthy, stimulating way to replace the feeling you got from the substance during addiction. This is key, as filling this void means your brain is less likely to crave said substance. You may have picked up a hobby, begun to volunteer, or devoted yourself to your work or family to the point where you simply do not have the time or resources to concern yourself with a substance. Alternatively, you may have found a way to engage with a recovery group, and developed additional strategies to help you cope. Finally, you can tell if you are now strong enough to resist the temptation of a trigger if you no longer think about a substance, and if its thought repulses you. While this may seem extreme, it is not uncommon for former victims of addiction to end up hating what used to be their drug of choice, and this could not be better!
Sobriety is hard, but addiction is deadly. Choose the right path. Call Oceanfront Recovery at (877)279-1777 for help now!
