Early recovery is a time filled with self-growth and altering your life for the better. Feelings of discomfort are only to be expected when going through the stages of detox, inpatient treatment, sober living, and then aftercare. Those stages are essential in the recovery process and doing something to jeopardize that process will ruin your chances of having a successful treatment and recovery. Your well-being comes first, so here are things you should stay away from in early recovery to help stay sober.

Early Recovery

Many people turn to distractions to help with the recovery process like relationships, personal appearance, food, or others. To protect your early recovery as much as you can, you should watch out for these five things.

1. Hanging out at clubs or bars

Many people like to push the boundaries and see how much they can test themselves. An example could be taking a job at a restaurant with a bar. Temptations can occur when wanting to hang out at the bar with coworkers and ‘feel normal’ again. You may be able to hang out at these types of locations later down the road, but not while in early recovery. You have to figure out your own boundaries and capabilities with the steps, or other methods until you will be able to feel normal again in those types of social situations.

2. Going to Casinos

Casinos can be even worse than bars and clubs because there is gambling and alcohol there. It may be extremely tempting to join your friends at the casino one night but it is filled with behavioral addiction. A co-occurring addictive disorder is common to adopt when suffering from a substance dependency. The atmosphere of casinos does not help with early recovery either.

3. Working a lot of hours

Working at a job and putting everything you have into it could be a means of distraction. You could be working long hours and collecting money, or spending it on things you don’t really need. Working as many hours as possible and buying material objects will not give fulfillment in a person’s life, it has to come from within.

4. Compulsive vanity-related behavior

Dieting, over-exercising, and being obsessed with physical appearance are all vanity-related behaviors that people might adopt in early recovery. If you start to restrict your diet and spend too much time at the gym, seek help from therapy before if becomes a compulsion that is damaging.

5. Having different intimate partners

You may feel a void or hole inside that you want to fill. Many people think sleeping around will help that hole, but in the end, it never does. You may feel fulfillment at first, but it will quickly disappear. It is a false sense of validation through physical approval. Battling self-esteem takes physical, emotional, and spiritual practice and sleeping around will not help in the long run.

The first year of addiction recovery is important. The habits you form and distractions you take on will determine a successful recovery in the future years to come. Listening to the suggestions of those who have been through early recovery already will help too.