Embracing Sober Vacations: Travel Ideas for Recovering Addicts
Planning a Sober Vacation
Summer is in full swing. Have you taken your summer vacation yet? If you are a recovering addict, the idea of having a good trip without relapsing can be daunting. All too often, people use vacation as an excuse to overindulge, be it food, alcohol, or abnormally adventurous behavior, but this doesn’t have to be you. There are plenty of sober travel adventures out there, and our luxury drug and alcohol rehab in South Florida is helping you find them.
Tips & Ideas for Sober Vacations
Before you even think about looking up flights or where to go, there are a few guidelines you want to make sure you follow so that you can have a successful sober vacation. The most obvious advice we can give you at Seaside Palm Beach is to avoid both places and people that are big drug triggers for you.
These destinations include the all-inclusive resorts where people sit and drink by the beach all day as well as the big city party scenes like Las Vegas or New Orleans. It is also important to surround yourself with the right people.
Take a trip with other members from your addiction treatment program in Palm Beach, or go with friends and family members that you know will support your sobriety. With a little research, you may even be able to find sober travel groups.
The Grand Canyon
Head to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. If you underwent holistic addiction treatment, you understand the importance of exercise for a comprehensive recovery. This area of the United States is filled with breathtaking landscapes and hiking trails that can give you the same euphoria as drugs but without the negative side effects. Hiking every day will certainly give you the exercise you need and continue to make your body stronger.
Yoga & Meditation in Thailand
If you struggled with your mental health during your time in treatment, you will want to check in with yourself and practice what you learned during your recovery program. Yoga and meditation are both great ways to practice mindfulness and mental health care.
Religious Retreat
For some, addiction treatment reconnects them with their faith. If you found strength in God and your religion during your program, why not continue this outside of treatment? You should be able to find plenty of sober vacations to choose from through church or other like-minded individual groups.
Morocco
Don’t waste your holistic alcohol rehab. With such a unique and different culture from that of the United States, Morocco is a great place to forget about the fact that you aren’t drinking. Even better, alcohol isn’t even that readily available there. Instead, throw yourself into their culture with their food, history, and markets.
Personal Stories of Sobriety and Wellness
Sobriety and Wellness Through Personal Fulfillment
I never knew that boredom and frustration could lead to alcoholism. Well, for me at least, first came depression, and then came my drinking problem. To the casual observer, I had everything: a wonderful and successful husband, two amazing kids, a beautiful house in the Hamptons, and the security for which most people long. However, something was still missing, and that “something” started to eat away at me like cancer until it finally drove me to drink. My battle with the bottle and subsequent time in rehab taught me that my feelings and emotions are what compelled me to abuse alcohol.
I was watching my kids grow up right before my eyes. I was proud of each of them and the people they were becoming. Although I love being a mother, I still could not help but feel that every day my children matured, was another day of me getting closer to my own obsolescence and, one day, my death. I tried talking to my husband about it, but he did not get it and simply dismissed my feelings as being irrational. I do not know exactly when I started drinking. I do know that I was slowly withdrawing myself from my family and the rest of my life. Looking back on it, I guess it took about a year and eight months before everyone else started to notice that something was wrong.
Around this time, I started excusing myself from family outings by faking illnesses or saying I was too tired to go anywhere. Once I was alone, I would drink and fall asleep. When my family came home and tried to wake me, I would not budge. My life slowly began to slip away from me, and the only thing that seemed to offer me any comfort was alcohol. Eventually, my husband noticed our liquor bottles disappearing, and I would get increasingly defensive when asked if I knew where they could have gone. This led me to begin getting defensive about everything and anything. Soon we were fighting all the time, so much so that one night I left the house angry and drunk and crashed my car into a tree a few doors down from our home.
Fortunately, my husband was following me with his car and got both me and my car home before anyone called the police. The next morning, my husband gave me an ultimatum that I get help for my drinking problem. He explained to me that he did some research online and saw a TV commercial too for a luxury alcohol rehab center in Palm Beach, FL, that he wanted me to try. I really did not want to go, but I had no choice at that point if I wanted to save my marriage and continue to be a good mother to my children. I reluctantly agreed to enter treatment, and thank God, I did because it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. While in treatment, I learned I was suffering from depression. The excellent medical staff at this facility really helped me overcome it while showing me the importance of my autonomy and self-validation. I have been sober for over two years now, and I am grateful for every day I have with my children and my husband.
Clean, Sober, and Stronger
I have always considered myself a high-strung or anxious woman, but within the last couple of years, I had the weighty task of inheriting my ailing uncle’s business as the new executive administrator. While I did have good insight and knowledge of the workings of the company, the pressure proved to be just too overwhelming.
I considered this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, so instead of letting this managerial pressure take over my day, I started using Klonopin to take the edge off my work week. While I was apprehensive at first about the possibility of prescription drug abuse, I soon realized that I was able to function much more easily and effectively around my employees.
As my responsibilities grew in my newly appointed position, so did my tolerance for the drug, and what would be the beginning of my prescription drug abuse. It was easy to obtain whatever I needed from my girlfriend, who was a virtual one-person pharmacy, so I began trying and comparing other similar sedatives and depressants to find out which would have the best effect.
I put nodding off at my office desk and other inappropriate places down due to overworking, but it was when my employees began to notice my slowed-down mental state and slurred speech that I decided to counterbalance these symptoms with different types of stimulants. After a year of this drug seesawing and increasing dosage, I began to feel more permanent and psychotic effects changing my mental state. This is the point I knew I had developed a prescription drug addiction and instead of needing prescription drugs for help, I now needed help to break free from them.
I was originally quite worried about having to leave town and direct communication from my business, as my position requires me to be available for every workday. Thankfully, while searching the web one day, I found Seaside Palm Beach executive alcohol and drug rehab!
What really sold me on them was their understanding that I needed to stay in touch with my business during my treatment. I was able to work up to 3 hours each day over the phone and computer to uphold my business responsibilities and simultaneously receive the help that pulled me out of this desperate addiction. My counselors knew the severity of my combined prescription drug abuse right away.
They were the first ones to actually explain to me the dangers of how fast tolerance builds with prescription drugs and pointed out which of my weaknesses and general personality traits left me vulnerable to abusing them. They also helped me discover strengths that I never knew I had and taught me how to utilize them effectively to naturally overcome my original work anxiety. It has been 5 months since I left the executive drug rehab program at Seaside Palm Beach, and I have felt stronger and in more control of my business than at any point when I was abusing my prescription medication.
Call Our Florida Rehab Today
If you or your loved one is still working on taking that first step to getting sober, let us walk with you on this journey. Call us today at 561-677-9374 to get started.
