Working on staying clean and sober? This is actually the hard part of addiction remission. Getting there is extremely challenging too, no doubt; but, long term abstinence is tricky. It’s that marvelous aspect of our brains, called neural plasticity that makes it such a challenge; it conditioned us to become sensitive to cues and triggers that incite us to return to our addictions.
Common belief is to avoid these learned signals that say to go get tanked or high. That doesn’t make them go away though, the correct process is learning to desensitize to them. Besides, do you really want to say good bye to those you love? This is probably one of the saddest misconceptions in today’s addiction recovery world, the loss of loving relationships.
Please work with someone who understands how to help you desensitize to your cues and triggers. Love is the most valuable commodity on the planet, in my eyes, it doesn’t need to be sacrificed in order to remain sober.