Summary

The article emphasizes the importance of identifying and eliminating toxic influences and activities from one's life to support sobriety and overall well-being.

Abstract

The article discusses the significance of recognizing and removing negative people and activities that can trigger relapse in individuals striving for sobriety. It suggests that a thorough examination of one's reactions to various situations and times of day can reveal patterns that lead to negative behaviors. The author shares personal experiences, such as reducing news consumption and quitting social media, to illustrate how minimizing exposure to stressors can reduce the risk of turning to alcohol. The article encourages individuals to be ruthless in cutting out toxic influences, even if it means distancing themselves from long-time friends or family members. It argues that prioritizing one's health over the feelings of those who contribute to destructive behaviors is essential for successful sobriety. The process of self-assessment and eliminating negative influences can also lead to improvements in other areas of life.

Opinions

The author believes that constant exposure to negative news and social media controversies leads to increased stress and anxiety, which can trigger a desire to drink.
It is the author's opinion that individuals must prioritize their own wellness over the potential feelings of those who bring negativity and drama into their lives.
The article suggests that the process of getting sober can feel selfish but is necessary for personal health, especially after years of damaging behavior.
The author emphasizes the benefits of saying no to social situations that are intolerable without alcohol, particularly for introverts.
There is an opinion that cutting out toxic people and activities can lead to swift improvements in various aspects of one's life.
The author values the act of self-reflection and recording one's reactions as a means to gain confidence in avoiding triggers that endanger sobriety.

What toxic people and activities can you ditch to support your sobriety?

A big contributor to getting and staying sober is taking the time to really deconstruct the situations and people who bring negativity into your life.

By putting them under the microscope, you can start to hone in on triggers that might lead to behaviours and activities you’ll later regret.

This can actually be a really rewarding and satisfying undertaking in the long run.

The more information you gather and record about your own reactions, the more confident you’ll be in saying no to negative people and situations before they put your sobriety at risk.

So what triggers you?

What times of day are you the most positive and energetic?

What times of day are you most lethargic and sad?

When do you think you can take on the world, and when do you feel that the only thing that’ll solve your problems is a drink?

What stresses you out?

More importantly, can you remove needlessly stressful people and activities from your life?

Addition by subtraction

For example, one thing I cut back on drastically was consuming the news. I also completely ditched Twitter last winter.

I marvel at people who sit on their phone or computer all day, getting riled up about every little thing on the internet.

People read an endless stream of controversial stories, which are often pumped up by social and traditional media companies (I know, because I worked for one) to drive “engagement”, and then get into heated disputes with people on the internet who they don’t even know over topics that don’t affect their lives in any real way.

And what does that cause? Stress and anxiety.

Their fight or flight response kicks in, and after doing that all day, their adrenal glands are shot and they just want to relax and have a drink.

Honestly ask yourself: what is the benefit of this activity?

Ask yourself that of any activity that’s causing you to get low and crave things that get you out of your own head.

And be absolutely ruthless about cutting those activities and people out of your life.

This may be difficult if it’s a long-time friend or even an extended family member who’s constantly bringing drama into your life.

You don’t need to be showy about it or cause a controversy, but you can certainly drastically reduce the time you spend around constantly negative people, maybe to nothing.

Time to put yourself first

The more toxic influences you have in your life, the harder it’ll be to get the actual toxins out of your body and brain.

“But I feel bad, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings!”

This is an excuse, and one you need to overcome to support your own health.

If you’re not going to prioritize your wellness over that of people who make you feel terrible and who are contributing to behaviours that are actually slowly killing you, you are going to fail.

You may find throughout this process of assessing yourself and the people around you that you’re able to quickly make improvements in many other areas of your life as well.

In a way, getting sober can feel a bit selfish. Perhaps it means spending less time with people who like you, but who completely drain your batteries.

For me, as an introvert, it means saying no to more social situations — the kinds of situations that I used to lean heavily on alcohol for in order to tolerate.

After all the years of damaging your physical and mental health, however, isn’t it time to start putting yourself first?

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