Life in the real world

     Those of you new in recovery will often hear references made to people being on the "pink cloud."  That term is used to describe that period where you are in treatment long enough to feel really good about your recovery but you have yet to have to deal with the stressors of daily life.  For patients who are in a residential treatment facility the pink cloud can give you a dangerous false sense of progress in your recovery. 
     When you leave treatment and go into the real world you have to face everything and do it in a way that you aren't accustomed to.  In recovery you have to abstain from the substances and behaviors of your addiction so you can't use them as the unhealthy coping mechanisms that your are used to falling back on.  So how do we go about handling the challenges of daily life in the outside world?  The answer is deceptively simple.  We need to incorporate the regular practices that we learned while in residential or intensive out-patient treatment.  This requires time management and self-discipline which as addicts we typically are not great with.  We have to realize however that our old ways of doing things brought us to the breaking point.  We became powerless over our addictions and our lives had become unmanageable.  Returning to our old patterns will take us right back to the edge of the cliff and if we are not capable we could easily allow ourselves to be pushed back into the abyss of active addiction.
     A schedule can be our best friend, in fact it can save our lives.  I have found that putting my schedule in my phone allows me to have time for everything I need to do and luckily there isn't much time left in which I could relapse.  Meditation, step work, prayer, exercise, meetings, therapy and even sleep are all scheduled.  When the time rolls around for me to do any of the above listed things, I simply do them.  Even if I don't feel like it, my schedule is the script by which I can stay sober and I do whatever the activity scheduled for that time is.  People often ask me "What if you don't feel tired when it says it is time to sleep?"  I have always found if I lay in bed with the lights off, I will often fall asleep faster than I thought.  Now don't get me wrong.  Following a schedule this strictly isn't always fun and at times it certainly doesn't feel easy, but I am still free from all substances and behaviors that plagued my life in active addiction. 
     Following a schedule is great but it needs one other thing that is essential for addicts in recovery, accountability.  I print my schedule out and check off items that I complete.  I share this with my sponsor and if I am not sticking to my schedule he does and excellent job of giving me an assignment based in step work to help me start to buckle down and see the importance of getting to everything on my schedule.  I'm sharing this because it has been helping me.  Please feel free to share what has been working for you by commenting.

Thanks,
            ScottinRecovery