So you’ve begun to get the cravings under control and are starting to rebuild your life. You’re changing habits, changing your thinking and feeling hopeful about the future. As you begin to find more enjoyment throughout your days, you might also be thinking it would be nice to have someone to share all these beautiful things with. But before you jump head first into dating, or a relationship, you need to ask yourself if you’re really ready for dating in recovery. While finding that special someone to share your life with has many benefits, it’s also a big responsibility. Below are four questions to help you decide whether it’s time to write dating into this chapter of your life.

Achieve your New Year’s resolution to quit drugs and alcohol

While it’s customary to begin the new year with resolutions large and small, the hard reality is that 33% of resolutions survive the end of January and only 8% of people keep them overall. But it doesn’t have to be this way. By following certain approaches, you can boost your chances of success in the new year. Whether you want to stop using drugs and alcohol, begin or re-dedicate yourself to the journey of recovery from addiction, the strategies below can help you succeed.

Whether they’re with family or friends, relationships can help you stay healthy. 

Now that the holidays have passed, many of us feel relieved to be done with those obligatory get-togethers and other social functions (Zoom or otherwise). But despite the cookies, and perhaps the cocktails, all that socializing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, connection can strengthen your recovery from substance abuse or mental health conditions, and even help with physical wellness. 

Certain experiences become pivotal moments that change the course of an individual’s life forever. It may be as tragic as a car accident that leaves the driver permanently paralyzed. Or as inspiring as meeting a musician whose work you admire. Or as empowering as it is to walk each day in sobriety after years of struggling with an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Achieving long-term sobriety is commendable. It can be achieved through social support, professional detox, treatment, and a dedication to renewed sobriety even after moments of relapse should they occur.

Addiction professionals say they’re working toward ending stigma surrounding addiction, but they also tend to promote addiction as a disease. These activities are contradictory. By promoting addiction as a disease they play into the general tendency to perceive in-groups (“normies”) and out-groups (those with the disease). Instead of emphasizing that “addiction is a chronic brain disease” or “treatment works,” the following ideas, depending on the context, would make much more helpful and less stigmatizing messages:

Our Addiction Rehab Center Dives into the Idea of New Year’s Resolutions

How many of us make New Year’s resolutions?
Well, like most estimates, it depends who you ask. According to Statisticbrain.com, 45 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions. Forbes estimates about 40 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Just as a comparison, only about 33 percent of us watch the Super Bowl. Seems odd doesn’t it? More of us make New Year’s resolutions than watch the Super Bowl!