Emotional Sobriety: How to keep your emotions stable in recovery

In the beginning, the focus is on physical sobriety. When an addict decides to quit using, they need to put aside their emotions, and the only thing they need to worry about is not picking up. As their body adjusts to functioning without drugs or alcohol, they can slowly begin to concentrate on what’s most essential to their recovery: emotional sobriety.

What is emotional sobriety? In short, it’s being able to regulate your emotions and your mood. Emotional sobriety is being able to deal with strong feelings without resorting to addictive, compulsive, or destructive behaviors. Without emotional sobriety, it’s difficult – if not impossible – to maintain physical sobriety.

People who are physically sober but not emotionally sober are often referred to as

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Finding Emotional Balance in Early Recovery

Feelings are rampant in early recovery. Fear is a big and powerful part of emotional imbalance. So are sorrow, anger, remorse, guilt, and general feelings of free-floating anxiety about what will come, what has gone happened during active addiction, and what is going to happen as a result of these situations.

It may seem that all of your emotions are present at once, making their presence known in different ways. It is possible that sleeplessness and tension will manifest because the calming influence of medication is eliminated in recovery. It feels like it will never end, but it usually does and it usually will. How does one get through the initial discomfort of emotional disregulation that is part and parcel of early recovery?

Learning to identify and talk about these feelings is the first step toward living with them. Historically, it was necessary to drown them in alcohol or shove them aside with drugs. It does not work, and now they have become overwhelming in their demands for attention. Talk therapy, even with an understanding and compassionate friend, is the beginning of welcoming feelings back into our experience. There is tremendous freedom in admitting that feelings are new to us and uncomfortable, even pleasurable ones. Learning to identify what is being felt can be an empowering and exciting new way of beginning as well.

Sayings in recovery settings, such as

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