Going Clean: 10 Great Reasons to Stay Sober
More than 20 million American’s older than age 12 are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
If you were one of them you know the struggle it takes to get clean and sober.
Now, that you’ve obtained sobriety you might be thinking, you can control your addiction and one more time won’t hurt.
Between 40 and 60 percent of people relapse after getting sober.
If you’re thinking of falling off the wagon, check out these 10 reasons to stay sober.
The Hardest Part was Getting Sober
Detoxing is the arguably the hardest part of getting sober. Week of withdrawal symptoms like possible seizures, nausea, and vomiting, and other side effects are over.
Your system is no longer dependent on any substance so now it’s time to focus on living.
If the urge to use makes you question whether or not you should use just one more time, the answer is always absolutely not!
Addiction is Expensive
It cost a lot of money to maintain an addiction.
Addicts often spend thousands every week, scrounging, scraping, even stealing and engaging in questionable behavior to find money for another fix.
if an addict is able to hold down a job, all of his income goes to the addiction.
Many addicts forgo paying bills to support the habit. When this happens they end up on the street or couch surfing with anyone who will give them shelter for the night.
The next day, you go back to the grind of finding money to feed the addiction.
As you continue to use your tolerance increases, forcing you to buy more and more until you run out of money and turn to other methods of acquiring what keeps you from being sick.
By staying sober, you’ve taken an important step to ending the vicious cycle and stepped onto the path to being a productive member of your community.
You’ll Respect Yourself
As if the shame you feel while you’re drinking and using drugs isn’t enough, the shame you feel when you’re coming down is even worse. So you do whatever you can to drink or get high to decrease the shame.
The cycle is never-ending.
When you’re sober, you learn ways to cope other than turning to
Family and Friends Respect You More
When you’re high or drunk you become unreliable. You say hurtful things and do things that make people lose respect for you.
Sober do their best to keep their word because they don’t want to disappoint their friends and family.
They avoid words and actions that would hurt their loved ones’ feelings. And, they spend less time apologizing and making excuses for the things they’ve done while they were under the influence.
You Make Better Decisions Sober
People under the influence take greater risks than those who are sober.
Do you remember acting a way that a sober you would never even consider?
Maybe you stole from a loved one, or you did questionable things to feed your addiction.
When you’re sober, you’re more likely to make conscious decisions not to act against your morals and goals.
You’ll Live Longer
Aside from the risk of overdosing, addiction adversely affects your hearth.
Your drug of choice probably comes with serious health consequences. Alcohol abuse can result in liver cirrhosis, throat and mouth cancers, organic brain syndrome (brain damage) and a host of other health problems.
Heroin addiction can lead to Hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, tuberculosis and various bacterial infections among other issues. Depending on how you use it, it can lead to site-specific complications.
Injecting heroin with a needle may result in the previously mentioned diseases due to sharing needles as well as skin abscesses and collapsed and clogged veins.
Smoking it can lead to pulmonary diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, asthma and other lung conditions.
Snorting leads to damaged the mucous glands in the nose tissue like a perforated septum.
Cocaine addiction can result in irregular heartbeat, insomnia, paranoia, muscle spasms, and a variety of other conditions depending on the method of consumption.
Prescription drug abuse comes with a textbook of side effects and dangers. Among those are heart failure, organ failure, respiratory failure and a plethora of medical and mental conditions.
Meth abuse results in a quick deterioration of the teeth, hair and physical appearance. Smoking methamphetamines can cause respiratory complications like pneumonia. Injecting meth and snorting it can lead to the same complications as shooting heroin and cocaine.
Jailtime is No Fun
Your risk of being arrested increases when you’re under the influence. Consider yourself lucky if it’s never happened to you.
Every time you buy drugs, you risk being caught by the police. Every time you drive or attempt to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol you risk being arrested for DUI or DWI.
If you’ve ever been arrested you know the additional monetary cost of addiction. Bail and attorney fees aren’t cheap either.
When family and friends are fed up and refuse to foot the bail money to get you out of lock-up, then you have to sit in jail and even risk prison time.
Staying sober is decreases your chances of spending time in jail for possession or being under the influence.
You Can Have More Meaningful Relationships
Addicts tend to develop relationships with people who enable their addiction.
Their friends are likely to be people they use with, and they might develop co-dependent relationships with people who don’t have their best interests at heart.
Romantic relationships that develop between addicts can be toxic and abusive.
When you’re sober it’s easier to develop healthy relationships because your mind is clear and aren’t making relationship choices based on the addiction.
You’ve Become a Role Model
By getting sober you’ve written a story that others should hear.
Regardless of how you fell into addiction or how good or bad you had it before, someone can learn from you.
The minute you gave up the habit that held you captive, you rewrote your narrative. Now, one of the most important reasons not to do drugs is that you can make a difference in someone else’s life.
You Owe it to Yourself
You’ve worked hard to get sober, so staying that way should be your top priority.
You are worth every moment of hard work and dedication it takes to be sober.
Life is more enjoyable when you can think clearly, and you want to enjoy every minute of it.
More Reasons to Stay Sober
There are plenty of reasons to maintain sobriety.
You probably have reasons that are meaningful to you. Try making a list of your own reasons.