My name is Andrea and I have 412 days sober. Living in California, there are a lot of different definitions of sobriety, so I always like to clarify. For me, I am in recovery, so I am sober from drugs and alcohol. None of that is good for me. And having recently hit my one year of sobriety, I have been reflecting a lot. I wanna make this video for anyone out there who’s struggling in their sobriety or anyone that is interested in learning more about sobriety or maybe thinks that having a sober lifestyle is the right boot for them. These are some really helpful tips, tools and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last year. No. 1, be honest, not everybody in your life needs to know every detail about your life, but having at least one person that you can be completely honest with is a game change.
No. 2, taking suggestions. I went to treatment. And when I got to treatment, obviously, I wasn’t in there on a winning streak. For a lot of people, when you’re first getting sober, it’s not because your life’s going amazing. So getting into treatment, I knew that everything that I had tried on the outside had not worked. And my life just kept getting worse and worse. And I was digging myself deeper and deeper into a bottom. So I had to try something new, and that meant doing the exact opposite of what I wanted to do, which is control everything. And instead give up that control, surrender and take the advice of other people.
I knew for a fact that my way didn’t work. I was a little bit hesitant on believing if other people’s ways worked, but doesn’t hurt to try. And it was through taking the suggestions of my sponsor, other people that I knew that were sober, my therapists. And I started to slowly see the light again. And I started to slowly understand that I could live a happy, fruitful, fulfilling life as a sober person, which I never thought was possible.
No. 3, be of service. It sounds so simple, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been so deep into my own shed in my head about myself, in my own problems, and then as soon as I step out of myself and I ask someone else how their day is going or how I can help them be observers to them, I’m immediately out of my ship. And it’s so fulfilling to be able to help other people that it then in turn also starts to help you fill up your own cup.
No. 4, feelings are temporary. I used to get into such deep depression funks while I was drinking and using. And I truly thought that, you know, it wouldn’t get, ever get any better.
Something that I’ve Learned in treatment and through my therapists and other people that I know who are sober is that the great thing about feelings and being able to feel your feelings is that eventually they will pass. So even if I’m not feeling okay and I’m really upset about something or I’m stressed or I’m anxious or I just feel like I don’t have control over anything. I know even if I can’t feel it, I know that feeling will pass and I will eventually get back to a place where I am happy, Joyce and free.