Benefits of Living a Drug-Free Life: Physical and Mental Health

Getting sober is one of the most empowering decisions you will make. Your brain may initially tell you that “This is BORING!”, but we are here to tell you that leading an alcohol and drug-free lifestyle matters. When you stop consuming any kind of alcohol or drugs, you become open to a wide range of experiences and benefits that can transform your life.

In this blog, we will give you many reasons to stay drug-free by exploring the benefits of a drug-free lifestyle.

One of the immediate advantages of being drug-free is enhanced physical health. Alcohol and drug use take a toll on your body - depleting it of its nutrients and energy. But with a drug-free lifestyle, you experience a boost in your energy levels and feel a spring in your step.

But what you may not necessarily observe on the surface is that you experience better liver functioning and a reduced risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. You can reduce the risk of any of these by giving up alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, if you have been diagnosed with any health conditions, like alcohol-related liver disease, getting sober enables you to recover from this condition. It prevents these conditions from worsening as your body heals itself with better nutrition, exercise, and other healthy practices during recovery.

Moreover, staying alcohol and drug-free improves your physical appearance, with healthy weight loss, better dental hygiene, and glowing, hydrated skin. You can consider these as those added incentives you did not really expect.

Alcohol and drug use significantly affect mental and emotional well-being. Oftentimes, substance use and mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and schizophrenia occur together - these are known as co-occurring disorders. While it is not exactly known whether one leads to another, both definitively worsen each other. When you become sober, you reduce the risk as well as the severity of these concerns.

You learn effective emotion regulation and coping skills in therapy, which allows you to handle your triggers, temptations, and other life stressors without resorting to substance use as well.

Substance use can destroy your social life and interpersonal relationships, but one of the main benefits of living drug-free is that you experience better social relationships in your life. You begin to practice forgiveness, repair your relationships, cut off toxic relationships, and surround yourself with a strong social support system that can encourage and motivate you toward living an alcohol and drug-free lifestyle.

Moreover, you are able to turn challenges into opportunities in your studies and career, and have a chance of real success in your life. You gain self-confidence and improve your sense of esteem and worth.

There are many reasons why it is important to stay drug-free. When you begin your recovery, it can be difficult to see these reasons. But recovery is going to be every day of your life going forward - it needs to be your priority every day. This is going to be challenging; after all, nothing in life is easy. However, here are some practical tips to maintain a drug-free lifestyle:

• Eat a nutritious diet - incorporate a lot of fruits and vegetables in your diet and cut down on processed foods.
• Drink plenty of water - keep your body hydrated at all times.
• Sweat it out. Engage in physical exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. You can even extend it to 1 hour slowly.
• Incorporate healthy living practices like meditation, mindfulness, and yoga in your life. These exercises relax and strengthen your mind.
• Practice positive self-affirmations that boost your confidence and strengthen your resolve to stay committed to your sobriety.
• Set personal boundaries - physical, emotional, and internal. Do not let anything or anybody get in the way of your recovery.
• Surround yourself with a strong social support system. This also means going to recovery meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, SMART Recovery, and so on. You can build new sober connections with those with similar experiences and the same aim of sobriety.
• Cut off toxic relationships from your life - especially those who encourage and enable substance use.
• Build habits you can dedicate your time to - for instance, you can adopt a pet, take up arts and crafts, or anything that keeps you occupied and content.
• Finally, stay committed to your ongoing care. This may include ongoing therapy/counseling, medication management, and recovery meetings.

Early recovery is going to be challenging. Even after rehabilitation (rehab), you might need that bit of structure and support to navigate these tricky waters of early recovery, where you are transitioning back to independent living. To make this easier, you can opt for a sober living home that offers you a substance-free, structured, and communal living environment where you can relax and focus on your recovery along with other residents who are on a similar path as you.

Similarly, stick to your personalized aftercare plan of ongoing therapy/counseling, medication management, recovery meetings, and relapse prevention.

Surround yourself with a strong social support system and focus on keeping your mind, body, and environment trigger-free. This means avoiding the same people and places you used to hang out when you were using substances, drawing your boundaries, and practicing the coping strategies and other life skills you learned in your therapy.

The long-term impacts of choosing an alcohol and drug-free life are endless. While it begins with small changes, these are the experiences that have been missing from your life ever since substances took over. In the long run, you experience better physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. The feeling of being free from the grip of substances means you can rebuild your life from scratch and breathe in the new opportunities that present themselves to you at every corner of your life.