So, identify other activities that you love and increase them. Whether it’s exercise or spending time with friends, “we need another outlet to fill the void that alcohol leaves,” said Murphy.
Find your people.
You are more likely to be able to abstain from alcohol if you have support. “Tell as much as you can about it to your friends and family who feel safe,” said Murphy.
It also helps to connect with other people who share your goal. Face-to-face support meetings have become difficult to access due to the pandemic, but aid has proliferated online. Free sobriety support communities with virtual meetings include Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART Recovery, SheRecovers, In Rooms, Eight Step Recovery, Refuge Recovery, Recovery Dharma and LifeRing, among others. Neither good lighting nor charisma is needed or expected; get on your phone while walking in a park or sitting in your car.
“I go to two meetings a day now,” said Braunwyn Windham-Burke, a reality show star whose journey of sobriety is taking place in season 15 of “The Real Housewives of Orange County”. “It’s so easy, because it’s in my room.”
A member of Tempest, Valentine Darling, 32, from Olympia, Wash., Also considers virtual meetings more friendly to LGBTQ. “I feel safe next to the plants in my house, so I am more present and also more authentically myself: I wear dresses and express my gender strangeness without worrying that someone will follow me home.”
Many organizations hold meetings specifically for people of color, certain age groups or even professions. Ben’s Friends is a sobriety support group aimed at restaurant workers. “In restaurants we speak a common language,” said co-founder Steve Palmer. “You find out, ‘OK, he’s a professional cook. She is a bartender. This is my people. ‘”
Understand what recovery means to you.
If your month of sobriety was relatively easy to accomplish, simply consider it a restart. But if you’re having trouble following your plan, you may need more than just group meetings. You can have AUD, which is a disease, not a moral failure, and requires treatment like any disease. The most effective form of recovery usually involves long-term behavioral therapies and community support, as well as medications, if necessary.