If you have been around the rooms of recovery, you have probably seen people take different milestones in their recovery. 30-days, 60-days, 90-days, 6-months, 9-months, and years are the most common milestones that people celebrate. Staying sober for 1 day is difficult for someone who suffers from addiction, so stringing together some days, months, or years, one day at a time, of course, is a big deal.
What you will often hear some people talk about right before their sobriety milestone is how squirrelly they feel leading up to the day. Since everyone’s consequences and recovery are different, how is it that this commonality of feeling a little crazy before a recovery birthday happens so frequently?
You Believe You Should Be Further in Life
Even with a belly-button birthday, people struggled with not doing more in the past year. Using this same perception for your sobriety birthday is no surprise. Maybe you did not achieve all the goals you set for yourself, but you need to be ecstatic about hitting your main objective of staying sober. Stop being so hard on yourself and be happy with where you are in your sobriety.
You Find Yourself Reminiscing About the Past
This time of year, right before your sobriety milestone may remind you of what it used to be like. Smells, sounds, people, and locations can trigger you the closer you get to a milestone. Remembering your disturbing memories can bring you down if you are not taking measures to forgive yourself through therapy or the 12-Steps.
Your Addiction Is Trying to Trick You
Addiction is incurable which means your addiction will always be there waiting for you to make a mistake. No matter how far away from your last drink or drug you are, your addiction is doing push-ups waiting for a weak moment. As you get closer to a milestone, your addiction is doing double-time hoping to victimize your recovery. Make sure that you are taking advantage of your recovery and continue using your spiritual tools to offset the negativity your addiction is bringing you.
Draw strength from your sobriety milestones. After all, you have put a ton of effort to get to this point. Now that you are here, be proud but humble. This too shall pass, and you will be another day sober. Everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be.
We want to celebrate your recovery here at Valiant Living. Offering a full range of recovery and mental health services, Valiant offers “Expanded Recovery” to enrich our clients’ lives in mind, body, and spirit. With the power of recovery, clients are restored to full health and experience life-changing healing. Call us today to get started: 303-536-5463
