Getting sober can be an amazing feeling after months or years taken up by addiction. However, there’s such a thing as being too comfortable with your sobriety, and it’s not necessarily a good thing.
When a person begins feels complacent, they feel they’ve already done enough to improve their situation and no longer feel in danger from the risks of relapse. If you’re in recovery from an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it’s very important that you stay on the lookout for signs that you’re becoming complacent.
Signs of Complacency in Sobriety
You or your loved one may be complacent in sobriety if you are thinking or feeling things like:
- A lack of gratitude for how far you’ve come
- You no longer need to attend your 12-step meetings
- Doctors’, therapists’, and family members’ advice or opinions don’t matter
It’s likely true that your life has improved greatly since you began your treatment for addiction. Even if you have outgrown some of the help available to you, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to stop working on your recovery.
Dangers of Complacency in Sobriety
By becoming complacent, a person may be in danger of losing all the progress he or she has been working toward. They may begin taking their recovery for granted and stop making any further progress.
A person who becomes complacent in their sobriety may begin losing gratitude for what they’ve achieved, believe they no longer need to attend group meetings, putting them at a high risk of experiencing a relapse.
Even if they don’t relapse, people who become complacent in their sobriety will not get the most out of their recovery. Many people develop dry drunk syndrome, meaning that, although they are physically sober, they may act in other ways like they are still caught up in their addiction as they have not had a chance to properly deal with the emotional side of their disease.
What to Do if You’re Becoming Complacent
It can be tough to admit that complacency has set in, but it’s important to act when you realize it’s set in.
Think about what you can do in your everyday life to motivate you to stay sober. Perhaps you can cake on a sponsor role in your 12-step group or find another way to take an active role in the community.
It’s true that time heals all wounds, but never let yourself forget where you came from and how bad things were before you started to get help. Talk to your family or friends about what it felt like when you were struggling with your addiction and how nice it was for them to see you finally beginning to take control of your life again.