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What a Timeline of Non-Linear Sobriety Looks Like
On sobriety, bad habits, and sobriety again.
When we first attempt sobriety, it feels like it has to be all or nothing. If you quit, and then you start again, it feels like a weakness. It’s taken me a couple of years to realize that it’s not like that but if you rely on what you see on the internet, it can definitely seem like it.
The internet only tells the story of non-linear sobriety as a relapse. If you drink again at any point, you’re just an addict who gave into temptation.
Imagery of weekend benders or ending up homeless after a “relapse” that I read online created anxiety for me when I first tried sobriety; I was afraid of failure. It also made me more prone to drinking again because sobriety felt like a weakness more than a strength.
It wasn’t until I was a few months in that I could see my sober journey for what it truly was- a roller coaster of trial and error. Even then, I still drank after a full year. Something that people don’t tell you is that sobriety is not as black and white as people make it out to be. Maybe this won’t help you, maybe it will, but here’s my timeline of going into sobriety, drinking again, to being sober for what’s hopefully the last time.
