When living with addiction, we can find ourselves surrounded by countless different relationships, places, and triggers that hinder our efforts to get sober. Once we commit to our recovery, we discover that our surroundings have had a significant impact on our ability to get well. Our patterns of choosing our surroundings, whether those patterns were conscious or not, have played a part in our addictive patterns.
We may not have been consciously choosing our surroundings over the years. Sometimes we’re simply defaulting to what is easiest for us at the time. On the other hand, many of us may have intentionally been choosing the surroundings that have most facilitated our addictions.
Choosing Our Surroundings – People, Places, and Triggers
We’ve been spending much of our lives with people who encourage us to use because they’re not yet ready to get sober. Many of our partners, roommates, and family members enable our substance use in different ways. Our home environments are full of triggers, reminders, and paraphernalia. We spend considerable time in the places we use most, at parties, bars, or friends’ homes where we use together. We’re constantly surrounded by things that trigger our addictive urges to use. It can feel like opportunities to use are all around us.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Living Environments
Successful sobriety means not only abstaining from our drug of choice but also consciously choosing our surroundings with care. It can feel next to impossible to get sober if we live near the bar where we always drink or close to the person we buy drugs from. We might need to choose a home environment that is more conducive to our recovery. For example, we might choose a residential treatment program like Athens Area Commencement Center, followed by a sober living house.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Changing Our Relationship to Our Drug of Choice
Making the conscious choice to live in an environment that encourages our sobriety means we’re helping to set ourselves up for success. Our drug of choice has been eliminated, and triggers have been reduced, leaving far less temptation to use. We’ve changed our relationship to our drug of choice by changing our proximity to it. We might find it much easier to resist the addictive urges that arise when our home environment is not riddled with reminders of our drug history and triggers for relapse.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Relationships
Oftentimes, the person or people we’re living with are actively using as well. For many of us, our addictive patterns are such that we have chosen to be in relationships with other drug users. Our social lives revolve around drug use. Sometimes, our drinking buddies become our best friends, and we use with the people closest to us. We can most easily confide in the people who won’t judge us for using because they themselves are using. Addiction can run in families, so very often, we’re surrounded by family members who also use.
When recovering from addiction, we’ll need to look at our relationships closely and be honest with ourselves. Is this family member enabling my drug use? Are my friends trying to convince me I don’t have a problem because they’re in denial about their own addictions? Perhaps my spouse doesn’t want me to stop using because that would interfere with his drug use. Maybe my best friend doesn’t want me to get sober because that would mean she’d lose her drinking partner.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Choosing to Distance Ourselves
Consciously choosing recovery means consciously choosing the people we surround ourselves with. Long term sobriety requires supportive relationships with people who not only love us but who also support our sobriety. The relationships that hinder our progress are ones we might need to leave behind. We might need to take a break from certain friendships. Perhaps we’ll have to distance ourselves from certain relationships in order to stay sober. Some of our relationships might not survive in the end.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Choosing Our Sobriety
We must ask ourselves what is more important to us – this relationship or our sobriety? If our sanity and survival depend on our sobriety, any relationship that doesn’t support our recovery is not for our highest good. It can be hard to let go of people we care about, but it can be even harder to stay entrenched in addiction, fighting for survival.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Finding Support
Throughout our recovery journey, we will find people who encourage our sobriety. We’ll make friends with people in our support groups. Treatment programs like those at Athens Area Commencement Center will introduce us to people with whom we feel safe enough to share our addiction stories. Fellow clients will become lifelong friends. Our sponsors, therapists, case managers, and doctors, who have our recovery and our best interests at heart at all times, will be there for us as we navigate sobriety. These people will become lifelines as we let go of the toxic relationships in our lives. As we do the work of choosing our surroundings consciously, we drastically increase our chances of staying well.
Choosing Our Surroundings – Acknowledging Vulnerability
Prioritizing our sobriety means choosing our surroundings intentionally and carefully. We acknowledge that we might always have a vulnerability to addiction that could lead to relapse. Caring for ourselves means being aware of this vulnerability and doing everything in our power to keep ourselves away from anything that might endanger our sobriety, including choosing our surroundings consciously and intentionally.
At Athens Area Commencement Center, we understand the importance of surrounding yourself with the people, places and things that are most supportive and encouraging of your sobriety. Our team is committed to helping you stay well, and many of our team members are in recovery ourselves. Choosing recovery for life means choosing relationships and home environments that bring you peace and that offer stability. We offer aftercare/continuum care for two years after completing an initial treatment program to support you as you navigate the challenges that can arise after treatment. Call us today at (706) 546-7355 for more information on our treatment programs and all the ways we can support you.