Overcoming Lonely

Everyone is looking for a life of meaning, and finding that life requires a supportive community. You don’t need a hundred friends https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-are-sober-living-homes/ to feel less alone (hasn’t social media shown this already?). A handful of quality friends you know you can count on is enough.

Avoid Social Media

• Plan some time to connect with them through a sober activity or even just a phone call.
• The Berman Center is an outpatient mental health center in Atlanta.
• You can help people who are affected by alcoholism by making a donation to the Cleveland District Office.

It’s a great way to meet new friends or reconnect with existing ones. Things like a flat affect or facial expressions, arms crossed, even keeping your eyes on your phone when someone’s trying to talk to you. All of that can really loneliness in sobriety keep us from connecting with people. As a human being, you crave being connected to and close to others. However, you feel isolation and loneliness when you lack the resources, knowledge, and support to connect with others.

Addiction Treatment Programs

If you are struggling, try one of my suggestions above or for further support check out my article Sobriety Toolbox Tips. Try to find the balance and learn to enjoy your own company too. I learned early in sobriety that if I wanted to hold on to these friendships, I shouldn’t hang around waiting for them to call me.

You can’t really pick up where you left off when re-entering life after recovery.

This loneliness can damage your path to sobriety by driving you back to the SUD. Finding interests outside of substance use can help you deal with issues of loneliness in more than one way. From reading groups or clubs to sports and exercise, new hobbies give you access to new communities and help build relationships with new people. This helps fight loneliness and gives you different things to learn and focus on that aren’t feelings of isolation. No matter what recovery community you join, it’s important that you attend some kind of meeting or group aimed at helping you stay on the road to recovery.

• Ask a friend or loved one to come round the house or go to theirs.
• We quickly realised that Zak’s role was paramount in helping Jake to feel less alone in the world and in helping him learn to trust Trudi.
• It is the feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact.
• After such a party I find contentment in quiet alone time.

How to Avoid Loneliness and Stay Sober

For many, sobriety can feel like completely starting over, which can be scary. An AA sponsor will provide one-on-one support as you work through the 12 Steps. They’ll also keep in touch with you daily and help you develop essential tools and strategies you can use to deal with challenging emotions. If you have a relationship with a higher power, doing things like praying, meditating, and just spending time with your higher power can give you inner strength and resilience to cope with loneliness. Ultimately, the answer to loneliness may well be found in learning to live alongside it, as opposed to denying its existence or seeking to eradicate it.

Overcoming Loneliness In Addiction Recovery

• Once sign up, you’ll receive exclusive  access to my coaching podcast series.
• It is important to understand that there is a difference between being alone and loneliness.
• The question is a lyric from a band called Jack’s Mannequin that Emily Hemendinger, MPH, LCSW, said provides her with a great lead-in for discussing chronic loneliness with patients.
• Book clubs, exercise classes, church groups, cooking classes, and so many other opportunities can support sobriety without overtly addressing it.
• Given all of this, it is a good idea to have a plan for staving of those feelings of loneliness.