How to deal with the bad times in sobriety.

Just because we get sober it doesn’t mean that we will be exempt from bad things happening in life. Nobody gets a free ride it seems. The great news is the fact that we are sober means that we can deal with bad times far more effectively, and won’t be adding to the problem by drowning our sorrows. My life has been going well recently, but I know that there will likely be bad times in the future. Unlike my life previously though, I don’t allow this possibility of future pain to stop me from fully enjoying my current happiness.

While my life has been going well, I have been recently talking to people who aren’t having such an easy time of it. It has made me thing about the whole experience of bad times and why they happen. Since getting sober I have noticed that following each of these episodes of a rough patch that my life has had something really positive enter it afterwards. On each of these occasions the good that came afterwards was actually far more significant than the bad that came before. I remember someone once telling me that sometimes when we are going backwards it is to allow us to sprint forward and this definitely has been my experience with the whole thing.

So these bad times seem to be similar to the common cold that makes its rounds each year. We will pick these bugs up, but the best thing to do is get on with things as best we can until we shake it off.