Staying sober can be hard, especially if you are in the transition period from a treatment facility to independent living. According to a study on addiction relapse, “more than 85% of individuals relapse and return to drug use within 1 year of treatment.”[1] This is often due to triggers that people experience when trying to maintain sobriety independently.

To reduce your risk of relapsing in the first year of addiction recovery, you should consider attending a sober living program. These programs offer a drug and alcohol-free environment with supportive services to help you stay on track. For example, sober living programs connect you with a strong support network, give you a comfortable space to live in, and help you develop important life skills.

Even though sober living offers the support you need, you’ll still have to do some work to keep yourself motivated. To remain motivated in a sober living environment, you should set goals that are within your means to achieve, keep a journal to track your progress, stay focused on what’s important to you, stick to a healthy schedule, and participate in a recovery community.

How to Stay Motivated in a Sober Home

Completing addiction treatment is a huge accomplishment that should be celebrated. However, this does not mean your recovery journey is over. Many people choose to ease the transition from a treatment facility to independent living by attending a sober home.

When you are in a sober living program, there are some things you should do to keep yourself motivated. Over time, you might lose your focus, which means you’ll need tools to get yourself back on track. The best ways to stay motivated in a sober living program include:

Set Achievable Goals

When you are in early recovery, you want to set easy goals that you can achieve quickly. If you set difficult, long-term goals, you might feel defeated when you aren’t achieving them immediately.

Examples of goals to set in a sober living program include:

• Obtaining a job
• Attending a certain number of sober support groups each month
• Completing the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
• Accessing care for your mental health
• Starting to eat healthier, sticking to a sleep schedule, or exercising regularly
• Learning a new skill

By having small, achievable goals, you can help increase your motivation through the positive feelings you get once you complete a goal. Additionally, reaching goals helps you achieve a sense of purpose that can increase your chances of maintaining long-term recovery.

Keep a Journal

When you are in recovery from addiction, it’s easy to forget where you came from. Being able to see your progress increases your motivation by showing you that you are capable of positive change. The best way to track your progress is by keeping a journal.

In your journal, you could write about:

• How you feel each day
• What triggers you experienced and how you coped with them
• What positive things are happening in your life now that you are sober
• How you have progressed with your goals
• Examples of how your friends or family members have supported you

Stay Focused on What’s Important

When you got sober, you might have done so for a reason. Maybe you got sober so you could be a better parent to your kids, daughter to your parents, or simply to improve yourself for a better quality of life. Whatever reason helped you achieve sobriety, focusing on that reason can motivate you to keep going.

Stick to a Schedule

An easy way to lose your motivation is to become overwhelmed. Without a proper schedule, tasks like attending work, therapy, and support groups can quickly seem like too much. By creating daily and weekly schedules, you will organize your time in a way that prevents burnout and maintains your motivation.

Participate in a Recovery Community

Building a support network is one of the best ways to maintain your motivation for recovery. Addiction recovery groups like 12-step programs offer support systems based on shared goals and experiences. You should become active in a recovery support group by participating in meetings, helping to set them up, and connecting with other members by going out to dinner after the meeting is over.

When you make connections with people in a recovery community, you develop friendships and a level of support that you might not be able to find elsewhere. If you begin to lose your motivation, you can reach out to these individuals for support and advice on how to get your spark back.

Get Connected to a Top-Rated Sober Living Program

If you recently completed an addiction treatment program, you’ll need a supportive environment to live in. Sober living homes provide a drug and alcohol-free housing situation that offers the support you need to maintain long-term sobriety. At New You Sober Living, we offer tools and advice that can keep you motivated during your stay.

Contact us today for more information on how our sober living program will help you maintain long-term sobriety.

References:

1. Springer Nature Link: New Findings on Biological Factors Predicting Addiction Relapse Vulnerability