I’d bet nine out of 10 of us won’t even answer, and we’ll just laugh because it’s such a ridiculous question. Sobriety doesn’t necessarily turn you into Liz Lemon, but it can give you the clarity to understand that you’ve been Liz Lemon your whole life. It’s part of the sobriety package, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

By consistently practicing these habits, you can develop a more honest and authentic approach to life, leading to healthier relationships, personal growth and recovery from addiction. The https://ecosoberhouse.com/ relationship between honesty and sobriety is not always cut and dried. Learning how to be honest or how to live an honest lifestyle is a complex process with numerous ups and downs.

How to Maintain Honesty in Recovery

“I feel like we’ve all been duped because most of those ‘benefits’ are kind of a lie,” she said. “It’s like that bad relationship that you romanticize, but the reality is that it’s actually pretty painful. So you have to really examine your beliefs and pick them apart.” It may also be helpful to get to know yourself on your own, first. Spending sober time becoming familiar with your body intimately can help you better communicate your needs to someone else when you feel ready for that step. So if all of your friends drink alongside you, then there’s no issue, right?

• “I’m not going to lie and say you’re not going to notice any difference in social situations when you stop drinking,” said McKowen.
• The 12 steps from AA are designed to be a long-term project, just like you.
• When you don’t put anything unhealthy into your body, you won’t be so vulnerable to colds and stomach bugs.
• Imagine how much of a difference there would have been had Peter learned to be honest not only with himself but also with his family and friends.
• As it becomes increasingly popular, sobriety becomes less of a stigma and is now being more embraced by the general public as an appealing lifestyle choice.

Why identify a problem or honestly tackle it when I have the option of pulling the covers over my head and hiding in shame? “Name it and you can tame it” was certainly not on my list of things to do. I needed a drug sniffing dog to run through my house and another to sniff my soul to identify all the bullshit I was slinging.

You’re more productive.

You didn’t get sober because you were having fun. The honest truth is that you hit some sort of bottom and wanted to stop, but couldn’t do it on your own. In fact, being sober can make your life more fun and rewarding than it’s ever been before. Nobody likes to think that they might end up with liver disease or other substance-related health problems.

The actual recovery process of sobriety starts to get better around the 3-6 month mark, but the psychological recovery can take even longer. We usually start drinking alcoholically because we are trying to hide from something. Many of these problems enter our lives because of our drinking. It is natural to think that by quitting drinking, these problems will finally go away.

The Rewards of Sobriety

You won’t have to think about yourself as a person with no self-control or someone who says stupid things when drunk. You’ll also build your self-esteem by sticking with your decision to stay sober. Have you ever woken up unable to remember what happened the night before? Even if you don’t tend to black out under the influence, alcohol and drugs can make your memory foggy and unreliable. When you’re sober, you’ll feel sharper and more alert, and you’ll remember things better.

These recovery programs are mandated by drug courts, prescribed by doctors and widely praised by reformed addicts. A self-perpetuating belief system that can keep us in the grips of our addiction is the belief that we don’t deserve to be sober. While many of us don’t repeat this myth out loud, it’s definitely a common one. As our own worst enemies, we love to being sober sucks put ourselves down and keep the negative self-talk and self-loathing running rampant, and prolonging our addiction. When I got sober, I had these pie-in-the-sky ideas that if my addiction was under control, so were the rest of my problems. I found that the first six months of my sobriety, the problems that I had been running from, came crashing down head on.

Questions To Begin Your Journey Of Honesty

For some, relief from the need to lie is the most attractive aspect of addiction recovery. Yet in some cases the lies are so entrenched that they linger long after getting sober. If you don’t trust the evidence your client provided because you feel it misses parts of the story, do your own research. This prevents clients from saying that something dates back to 1902 if you can’t find any mentions of it before 1972—or if you find a story that clearly states that an event started in 1972. The legend is that the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest goes back to 1916 when four recent immigrants from Europe tried to eat as many hot dogs as possible in 12 minutes.

• By consistently following through on promises and working a recovery program, loved ones can begin to see that this time will be different.
• I enlist the help of my friends, sponsor, and teenage daughter to tell me the truth about how badly I’m lying to myself and others.
• If you’re struggling with alcohol in some way and considering a life of sobriety, remember that “you are not the problem,” said McKowen.
• When we cannot tell the truth, we will not know wholeness or wellness.
• Many of these problems enter our lives because of our drinking.

But people are diagnosed with these diseases every day, and if you abuse alcohol or drugs regularly, chances are high that you’ll eventually be one of them. When you’re sober, you don’t have to worry about developing life-threatening complications from your habits. Denying or simply avoiding the truth is often the first resort when facing a difficult or awkward situation. Perhaps throughout your time in active addiction, your family members or friends experienced emotional hurt.

Join Recovery Connection in celebrating your recovery with our sobriety calculator. Three months ago I hit the benchmark called “Advanced Recovery” and suddenly things began to fall into place like they did not do in the early days of my sobriety. One morning, near the beginning of a meeting, the speaker asked if any newcomers, or anyone in their first 30 days of sobriety, wished to identify themselves.

• I share stories of what transpired during my sobering up process – how I was berated and hurt by the person I trusted the most.
• It can be hard to talk about the embarrassing acts we may have done to get that next drug or drink.
• Honesty is a building block for lifelong recovery, but even it is no magical cure.
• Have a suspicion that you and your client may not understand a fact?
• Finding a voice of truth and hope in recovery is so essential.