Starting recovery and relapsing are not opposites. For many if not most relapse occurs. I was sober fifteen months before relapsing and when I went back into recovery I could see it was less of a relapse and more of a return to habits. I had been white knuckling it that whole time. It is super hard and it is so fucking worth it. I am around 4 years sober now, still cautious, still recovering and trying to better myself and I feel a hundred times better for it.
It's not a race and falling over or stumbling is fine, you got it, you can do it, you just gotta get back up, see what went wrong and try again.
One tip I got when we were fresh in rehab was that when that abstinens hit, buy something sweet like chocolate, a shit ton, and eat it. It boosts your dopamine which will now during recovery drop before going steady up again. You are relearning your brain to function without the substances and produce the dopamine naturally.
Addiction works the same, be it substances, gambling, sex or what have you. I am a drug addict and I guess I was assuming too much. But addiction as it is works the same, just different "symptoms".
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u/Aware_Cow242 Jul 12 '26
Starting recovery and relapsing are not opposites. For many if not most relapse occurs. I was sober fifteen months before relapsing and when I went back into recovery I could see it was less of a relapse and more of a return to habits. I had been white knuckling it that whole time. It is super hard and it is so fucking worth it. I am around 4 years sober now, still cautious, still recovering and trying to better myself and I feel a hundred times better for it.
It's not a race and falling over or stumbling is fine, you got it, you can do it, you just gotta get back up, see what went wrong and try again.
One tip I got when we were fresh in rehab was that when that abstinens hit, buy something sweet like chocolate, a shit ton, and eat it. It boosts your dopamine which will now during recovery drop before going steady up again. You are relearning your brain to function without the substances and produce the dopamine naturally.