The holiday season is here, a time for festive gatherings, exchanging gifts, and raising toasts. While these celebrations are joyful, they can pose challenges for those in recovery. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holidays, individuals in recovery may feel isolated.
Whether a person suffers from addiction or not, the holidays are one of the most difficult times to remain sober. Because of how difficult it is to stay sober during the holidays, those who do suffer from substance use disorders (SUDs) must take the proper measures to help themselves be able to cope with the holidays effectively.
At Golden Gate Recovery, our Bay Area rehab center understands how difficult times can be, especially around the holiday season. Our specialists will teach you or a loved one effective techniques on how to stay sober and effectively cope with addiction triggers. If you find yourself navigating social events while abstaining from drugs and alcohol, know that you are not alone.
There are numerous different reasons why holidays cause people to abuse alcohol and drugs more than other days in the year. One reason why people struggle to stay sober during the holidays is because of all the celebrations that occur at that time of year, as celebrations often lead to celebratory drinks and people abusing drugs to get high.
When everyone at a holiday party or event is drinking alcohol or using drugs, it can cause those with substance addiction issues to feel pressure to do so too. That’s why it’s so important for those who suffer from substance addiction to stay strong and learn how to stay sober and effectively cope with social pressure.
Another factor that can cause individuals who suffer from substance addiction to relapse during the holidays is the stress that often comes with the holiday season. For example, some people may feel stressed about having to see and socialize with all of their family and friends during the holidays. This is especially true if that person is responsible for hosting the holidays. For others, holiday stress primarily comes from having to cook and entertain everyone during that time of year.
Some people even experience anxiety or depression during the holiday season. Such anxious and depressive feelings during the winter holiday season can come from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Others who suffer from anxiety and depression during the holidays may do so because they don’t have close family and friends to spend time with and thus, feel lonely. As a result, such people may turn to alcohol or drugs to cope.
The bigger and more social the holiday, the more likely that it may act as an addiction trigger for someone in recovery. It is for these exact reasons that Christmas and New Year’s Eve are two of the holidays that people abuse alcohol and drugs the most. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two of the most dangerous months of the year for drug and alcohol-related deaths are December and January.
The third month that is most dangerous for drug and alcohol-related deaths is March. This is likely due to the big celebratory drinking holiday of St. Patrick’s Day. Additional holidays that people often drink more during include Cinco de Mayo, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and even holidays such as Memorial Day and Labor Day.
According to a report issued by Alcohol Monitoring Systems, over 450,000 monitored DUI offenders increased their drinking rates by 33% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, even though they knew that they were being monitored. This is just further evidence to prove that individuals should be especially vigilant about learning how to stay sober during the Thanksgiving and New Year’s holiday seasons.
Because staying sober during the holidays is so difficult, it’s important to be prepared and have a plan for how to remain sober during this time. Some of the best tips for staying sober during the holidays are listed below.
Sometimes, even when doing everything that one can to maintain sobriety, relapse still occurs. When this happens, remain positive and take the necessary actions to get back on the path to recovery. For most, this means undergoing medical detox and returning to a rehab program if possible.
Golden Gate Recovery is a grassroots organization in California that focuses on helping men who are early in recovery achieve long-term sobriety. The ultimate goal of our treatment programs here at Golden Gate Recovery is to ensure that our male patients have a smooth transition from 30-day inpatient treatment to everyday living environments.
Here at Golden Gate Recovery, we offer partial hospitalization program (PHP) treatment and intensive outpatient program (IOP) treatment as aftercare options for men who are early in recovery. We also offer aftercare treatment services for our male patients who are early in recovery.
Here at Golden Gate Recovery, our professionally staffed and comprehensive treatment programs include individual, group, and family therapy sessions. These therapy sessions can come in the form of everything from cognitive-behavioral therapy to dialectical behavior therapy, to psycho-education therapy, psycho-dynamic therapy, and more.
We also offer experiential therapy, regularly scheduled activities, regular drug and alcohol testing, community involvement, online support to our clients, and an effective 12-step program. This is on top of all of our treatment programs being individually tailored to meet client needs.
Here at Golden Gate Recovery, we even offer sober living services to our patients with 24/7 care and accountability. Our sober living homes offer accountability services by providing our patients with regular updates on their progress since receiving treatment. Even the house managers of our sober living homes provide accountability to our sober living patients by giving them daily alcohol and drug testing.
If you are a man who is new to recovery and in need of extra aftercare treatment to cope with the holidays, look no further than Golden Gate Recovery. We have all the resources to help you maintain your sobriety throughout the holidays.
So, what are you waiting for? Contact Golden Gate Recovery today.
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Dr. Small’s professional experience encompasses General Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry and Family Medicine. As the founder of Headlands Addiction Treatment Services, Dr. Small and his team have become leaders in the delivery of addiction medicine and psychiatry to treatment programs throughout California and beyond. These compassionate services are reliable, responsive, personable, and evidenced based. Most of the team providers carry multiple board certifications in psychiatry, addiction medicine and family medicine. They recruit the best and brightest addiction medicine professionals to deliver the highest level of treatment.
Certified by the Department of Health Care Services Certification: #210052AP Expiration: 03/31/2025
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