For somebody in addiction recovery, drinking-related social engagements combines with work-related stress combined can be difficult to manage – especially while traveling.
Here are some helpful tips which will make sure you don’t undo the exertions you have got done to urge this far in your recovery.
Recovering from any addiction is difficult enough. Add the strain associated with work, family, maintaining friendships, hobbies, and other responsibilities, and staying sober is even more difficult, especially for newly recovering alcoholics.
Most people who are in addiction recovery diligently follow a structured routine so as to take care of their sobriety; perhaps you are doing additionally.
However, what does one do if you’re undergoing an outpatient treatment program, or are very unaccustomed to recovery, and must persist a business trip – removed from your recovery support network?
Remaining Sober while on Business Trips
Travelling on business trips for those in (and especially people who are new to) recovery is often a stressful time. However, if you pre-plan the maximum amount of the trip as possible, arrange for extra support get through (either from rehab centers like Addiction Treatment Phoenix AZ, your counselor, sponsor, or local recovery groups), and prepare a group of fine excuses for not attending after-meeting drinking excursions, then your trip is more likely to achieve success in avoiding a relapse.
1. Plan, plan, and plan some more.
Especially for newly recovering addicts, advance planning is perhaps the foremost significant thing about determining your sobriety while on a business trip. Obviously, there’ll always be aspects of your trip that you simply cannot control, but ensuring that you simply know who to call in addiction-related emergencies, that the minibar is emptied in your bedchamber before your arrival, which you have got excuses ready for the after-meeting social gatherings will help.
Just knowing that there’s a bar within the hotel beforehand can facilitate your avoid it by being mentally prepared. Bringing some bottles of soda with you that you just can drink if you get an urge to consume alcohol may also help.
In addition to planning independently, pre-plan your trip together with your counselor. He or she could be able to foresee stuff you didn’t or provide you with proven and tested tips which will support you while traveling.
2. Do not stop visiting your meetings; head to more.
It is important that in the trip you’re feeling connected to your regular (or another temporary) support network and not left alone with temptations. We absolutely recommend that you simply attend some variety of daily recovery meetings get through.
Do some research and find a support group within the city that you just are visiting and visit it daily if possible.
3. Up the amount of care.
Since business trips are usually stressful and filled with temptations, it’s an honest idea to up your usual level of care instead of lower it during the time that you simply are going to be traveling.
If you always see your counselor once every week, we recommend that you just increase these individual sessions to twice per week during your trip and participate in them via Skype. You ought to also conceive to call and sign up along with your sponsor daily during the trip for added support – pre-arrange a group time, like every afternoon.
ALSO READ: How to Keep Health and Well-being When on a Business Trip
4. Make sure you’ve got phone numbers.
While on your business trip, you may experience a craving to interrupt your sobriety and have a drink at the hotel or a bar after a stressful day.
It is important that you simply know that there’s someone whom you’ll call and discuss with (and through) this temptation. Create a contact list of individuals to call and add them to your phone’s address book.
Your counselor might not often be readily available, but your sponsor could also be willing to allow you to call him or her more frequently. This is often why it’s important to plan before time and let your sponsor know once you are leaving, how long the trip will last, and therefore the geographical zone difference. Request him or her to please take your call was it to come back at an odd hour during this point – they’ll usually agree if they’re responsive to things.
5. Prepare your excuses ahead.
While within the middle of a business dinner, when everyone seems to be preparing to toast to a successful deal, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to conjure a decent excuse for why you can not take part in the festivity. If you prepare some excuses before for why you can’t drink with them, then the case is going to be easier and your reasons will sound more realistic.
The best excuses are simple ones, like that you just are on a strict diet that doesn’t yield alcohol, otherwise, you are taking a prescription drug. Citing medical reasons for not drinking usually stops people from asking further questions or from trying to entice you to possess only one drink.
Common drugs that alcohol interferes with include drugs for stomach ulcers, high force per unit area (Lotensin) high cholesterol or blood-thinning drugs (Advicor), drugs reducing blood clots (Coumadin) sleep-inducing drugs (Valium), or antibiotics like metronidazole or tinidazole.
Some people in recovery put paracetamol or aspirin in an unmarked container to strengthen the excuse.
6. Find a confidant at work.
If possible, find someone at work whom you trust and tell him or her that you simply are in recovery from an addiction that you wish to support during tough work moments like business trips.
This person is a secretary or the person responsible for scheduling at your destination who can make sure you are already busy when somebody suggests after-work drinks. Another idea is to start up with a colleague who is traveling with you, then they will back you up after you decline to partake in events that involve alcohol.