Anniversary of the 1 year sober
Sobriety is such a difficult journey. From the moment one decides to get clean to every subsequent day after that, sobriety is a struggle. Important milestones are few and far between, and that’s why it’s critical to recognize and celebrate each big milestone.
Little victories are still important to celebrate, but getting through one’s first year of sobriety is a huge accomplishment and something that should be recognized and celebrated with friends and family.
A full year of sobriety is a year full of new discoveries and learning about yourself in a new way. Sort of like meeting an old friend again from a lifetime passed. What kind of things did you used to do with that friend? How has he/she changed? What are you learning about yourself because of these new discoveries?
Below we’re gonna take a shallow dive into what reflecting on a full year sober can bring to people’s minds, and why celebrating the first year sober is so important.
The Importance of Celebration
After what can seem like a lifetime of addiction, any party or celebration can bring up memories of the parties that they went to while they were still addicted. While this stigma is valid and found everywhere (and should be recognized), one doesn’t need to get drunk or do drugs to celebrate.
Someone who has been facing addiction their whole lives can often feel like any party at all is a sin and should be avoided. While nobody should ever feel like they’re immune to the temptation of their old vice, they still have the opportunity to celebrate in an appropriate, drug and alcohol free environment.
This isn’t easy for people to just jump into – it will take time, and staying away from parties and that environment in general is a good idea at first. This is why for most people, making a bigger deal of your first year of sobriety is encouraged.
Take back control of your life and start on the road to recovery now.
What To Do For Your First Sober Birthday
So what should you do for your first sober birthday? This question has so many good answers, and much like the question, “what kind of party should I throw?” the answer is: “what kind of party do you want to have?”
Sober parties and parties that have alcohol or drugs are not too different. They can be just as fun, if not much more fun. You could invite some friends over for games, maybe talk to one of your supporters and try to get a few people together for a night out watching movies or something else low-key.
There are so many other ways to celebrate as well. Nobody needs to throw a party, they could do something that they love and perhaps even found out about on their sober journey. It could be that the recovering individual found a new love for hiking, going on long walks, or traveling.
In this case, maybe they could get a group of friends together for one of their favorite hikes that they’ve found. Maybe they think it’s time for something new and more challenging, if so they could try backpacking with an experienced group.
There are other options as well, one could go to a nice resort with some of the money that they have saved up from not spending it on alcohol (if they have it to spend, of course). In this case it’s important to remember that many resorts and other places generally have alcohol very accessible.
If you are weak to alcohol or that environment, it’s prudent to not go at all. If you have a solid plan in place for when you see alcohol consumed and a strong support group with you, after a year of sobriety it might be safe to go out and stick close to your friends in these environments.
Remember, sobriety is designed to free you, not shackle you. While leaving behind your addiction is hard and will require you to change your life in so many radical ways, the end goal is to be able to do life as a normal, non-addicted individual would. That means facing temptations at times when it’s inconvenient for you.
Learning About Yourself Again
A year of sobriety will teach you so much about yourself. It will push you to the very edge of your abilities and humble you like no other experience could. With this hard and challenging experience, however, comes a whole host of new things that you’ll learn about yourself.
- Friendships take a new meaningYour support group will be your rock in this time of recovery. You’ll quickly find out who your good friends are and who was only there for the fun times. This will hurt in some cases, it’s hard to find out that your friendship was only surface-level – but it will be enlightening in the end.The people that did stick by you and helped you through your recovery will be part of your life and your story for the rest of your life, no doubt.
- You’ll see a change in your financesAlcohol is expensive. Going out seems expensive, some restaurants that seemed out of your budget will suddenly become quite affordable. If you still have friends that drink, you’ll learn how important it is to split a check too.What will you spend with all of that additional cash? As you start your recovery journey, it’s a good idea to start saving much of the money that you would have spent on alcohol and spending it explicitly on stuff that you normally would never be able to afford. This can be a great incentive to continue saving and a great reward for getting all the way through 365 days.
- You’ll discover the kind of person you really are… and that person could be really awkward and not who you’d expect. That’s okay! Living the sober life is such a different one from a life of addiction. Getting to know yourself is a journey in itself. What kind of person do you think you’ll be? What kind of person do you think you are?After a full year, you’ll likely have answers to many of these questions already. On the actual day of your sober anniversary it could be a fun exercise to look back and see how you’ve changed.
If you or a loved one is struggling with an addiction to alcohol or any other kind of addiction, reach out for help as soon as you can. There’s no need to wait, there are people that want to help and have the tools to get you or your loved one on track. If you don’t know where to start, reach out to us at ecosoberhouse.com.
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