A lot of us can enjoy a good vacation without suffering from much more than a few hangovers, but for the addicted person, a vacation can bring on stress and too much change that they find difficult to navigate through. This stress gives them a perfect excuse to reach out to the substance they abuse.Three travel tips that can help keep traveling in a much safer way during addiction recovery process.Here, you will find addiction recovery.
While vacations are a time to get out of our mundane routine, interact with others and discover new places and see new faces, the addict doesn’t perceive a vacation like that. One of the reasons is because an addict’s life is limited. It revolves around getting the next fix or the next bottle. The addict’s mind is bogged down with satisfying the addictive craving and doesn’t give much thought to vacations. Yet, when vacation time comes, addicts can fear it much more than enjoy it because of the stress that often accompanies vacations such as being in a new place, or squabbling among family or friends.
Every day the recovering addict works on staying sober, and there is no vacation from that. So if you’re just beginning your recovering journey, you can learn from other recovering addicts that there are more important things, than what you’re going to wear, to take into account for a fun yet sober vacation. Here are some of those points.
How Addiction Recovery Changed the Way We Think About Vacations
Be careful who you travel with
If traveling with others, consider what you’ll do if your traveling partners want to go out for drinks. It’s best to choose travel mates who support and care about your sobriety even if that means depriving themselves from a few drinks when they’re with you.
Choose a destination
There’s no denying how some rehab destinations are real hot spots, but can also be tempting and you don’t want to jeopardize your addiction recovery by being in places that trigger your cravings. There are many travel companies, cruise lines and resorts that offer alcohol-free holidays. You can also find spas, camping trips, surf and ski getaways, sailing expeditions, and even music festivals that encourage sobriety and support those undergoing recovery by providing activities within a sober and entertaining environment.
Lessen the stress
A vacation is supposed to lessen stress, but a lot of things happen before we actually get to relax on vacation. Planning the vacation, making reservations, delayed flights, and petty arguments are also all part of a vacation and cause stress. The more you plan ahead for your vacation, the less stress you’ll face. But since there’s no way to always remove stress, recovering addicts still need to learn to go with the flow when things go wrong or not the way they planned.
If you’re a recovering addict, no one can help you more than yourself. There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy vacations as much as anyone else, because once on the road to recovery your perception of events, situations, circumstances and people begins to change. Continue to eat right, and get enough rest and sleep while on vacation. Don’t hesitate to remove yourself from anything that triggers your addiction so that you come back refreshed and sober.
