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Achieving a full year of continuous sobriety is an incredible achievement. While each person’s journey to sobriety is filled with its own unique challenges, each person may still experience their own constant stressors and demands for change. As a result, it is important to celebrate these huge milestones along with your sober birthday. Not only are these sober birthdays indicative of a time of profound change for each person, but they are also symbols that someone is finding their success in their personal lives beyond the influence of drugs or alcohol. Celebrating the first year sober and establishing this personal holiday is important, and there are a number of things that someone can do in order to help them internalize the profound nature of their accomplishment.
Why Celebrating the First Year Sober is So Important
Getting to the one year mark of sobriety is a massive achievement. Not only has someone acknowledged an unhealthy relationship or addiction to drugs or alcohol, but they have also gone through the discomfort of the detox phase, have implemented their own grounding and coping strategies, and have lived as members of a sober community during times of immense change in their lives. While each person will still undoubtedly have a number of goals that they want to accomplish on a personal level and may still deal with the constant stressors and urges that may be present, looking back at the magnitude of these accomplishments can help each person truly see how far they have come in their recovery. After a year of difficulty, hardship, and ultimate success, looking back at all the achievements that someone has accomplished can be a huge motivational spark.
It is also important to celebrate this accomplishment to reinforce the idea that someone is allowed to celebrate at all. For some in recovery, the idea of celebration or parties can be intricately associated with the use of drugs or alcohol. Having a sober birthday and allowing oneself to take pride and celebrate their sobriety can be a way for each person to continue to deconstruct the notion that celebrations are tied to the use of drugs or alcohol. Instead, celebrations can actually take place to honor the absence of drugs and alcohol. Sobriety doesn’t mean that someone has to avoid parties or going out with friends. Rather, it includes finding ways to have fun alongside friends and loved ones without drugs or alcohol.
Celebrating the first year sober also means that someone has overcome many of the trials that each year will present. It means that someone has had to confront the idea of the holiday season through a lens of sobriety, or that they have lived through the beach parties and beer commercials of summer, as well as the long nights of winter. A full year sober has given someone a taste of many of the hurdles that they will face each year, and as a result, given each person the perspective they need in order to continue to prepare for the years to come. Many elements of surprise have been removed, and someone can continue to build on the skills they practiced during their first year sober in order to improve their own lives and further their own goals for each year to come. This is an accomplishment that is worth celebrating.
Celebrating the First Sober Birthday
There are a number of ways that someone can celebrate this massive accomplishment. For those that attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a means for their recovery, receiving their chip is a huge sense of pride that someone can carry with them to physically remind them of the incredible milestone they have achieved. Others may take celebrations into their own hands, and hold sober parties of their own to acknowledge this pivotal moment. Throwing a sober party can encourage someone to reach out to their sober friends and throw a recovery reunion party of their own, as each person in attendance may be sharing a similar time sober and similar experiences. Most importantly, all those in attendance can truly understand the importance of the accomplishment.
Others can treat themselves to a vacation trip, or even a nice meal out. While finances may be something that someone constantly has to balance, rewarding one’s self for sobriety can mean that they have ceased their spending on drugs and alcohol and thus deserve a way in which they can reward themselves along with financial success.
Taking pictures of this event can be crucial to highlighting this moment in their recovery journey. They can compare photos of themselves now to when they were about to begin their recovery journey which will give a physical representation of their progress. They can also always look back on these photos and see the successes and discover the genuine happiness and pride that came about due to their commitment to sobriety. They can continue to utilize this milestone as a motivational tool for the future as each person reaches the next year and next achievement in sobriety.
Recovery is a long journey that can produce new challenges regardless if someone is just beginning their own recovery journey or is constantly adjusting their own coping techniques. If your or a loved one is struggling with an addiction, regardless of your phase in recovery, START UP RECOVERY can help design a plan that is right for you. With luxurious apartments available and professional staff that is ready to work with you to explore and implement your own personal recovery plan for success, START UP RECOVERY prides itself on its ability to reach out to you and help you set a plan for your own success. With mentorship and community as the cornerstones of START UP RECOVERY, each person is encouraged to explore their vulnerabilities while building on each other’s strengths. For more information on how living at START UP RECOVERY can help you, or to speak to a trained professional about how we can curate a personalized plan based on your needs and goals, call us today at (310) 773-3809.