4 Tips for Staying Sober on Vacation
Are you going on vacation? When you are living in recovery, taking a trip can be much different than it was in the past. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a blast sober, though.
You may need to do a little more planning and get creative with your plans to ensure things go smoothly and you aren’t tempted to drink on vacation. Here are four great tips for staying sober while you’re on vacation.
1. Bring Your Recovery With You
Bring your recovery with you— don’t leave it at home. If you go to support meetings at home, you can find a virtual Zoom meeting online while traveling. Or, if you prefer to do them in person, look up the local meetings in the area you’ll be visiting and go to peer support meetings there. If you have a coach or a sponsor, let them know that you’ll be traveling and ask them to be available for you to call if you need additional support.
2. Prioritize Your Self-Care
Sometimes, when you go on a vacation, you let your routine and self-care practices slide. While it’s tempting to do, it’s not the best for your recovery.
Bring your self-care routines with you. If you do yoga every morning, bring your mat, set it up in your hotel room, and find a free yoga online video to practice with.
You’ll be on vacation, so you should be able to ramp up your self-care routine and pamper yourself. Look up a massage place in the area you’ll be visiting and book a relaxing massage. When you prioritize yourself, even on vacation, you significantly reduce your chances of a slip-up drink.
3. Learn About the Location
Discover new ways to have fun. There’s plenty of stuff that you can get into on vacation to have fun that doesn’t involve drinking. For example, you could look into visiting a local zoo, aquarium, planetarium, or museum. You could go on a hiking trail. You could even do your own tasting tour of local foods.
It’s also important to figure out how you will be traveling, where you will be staying, and any backup ways to get around in case anything happens.
Nothing is more triggering to a person with a substance use disorder than plans falling apart while you are out of town. So, it’s essential to write down the name of taxi services and check to make sure there’s Uber or Lyft where you’ll be staying ahead of time in case anything happens — you’ll be prepared.
4. Keep Your Travel Companions Informed
If you have specific triggers that can lead you to drink, it’s wise to let the people who you’ll be traveling with know. Especially if one of the members in your group drinks, it’s a good idea to set boundaries with them. For example, ask them if they could not drink around you.
Also, if airports can be a trigger because of the stress and alcohol that’s available, then ask your travel buddies if you could carpool to your destination. If they still wish to fly and you think you shouldn’t, you may want to drive yourself down. If you have your vehicle, you also reduce the risks of not finding a way around when you get there.
Planning out possible hiccups with the people traveling with you is a good idea before you get to where you’re going.
Take a Sober Companion With You on Vacation
You can still have a great vacation and stay sober. If you are concerned that you may need extra support, you could hire a sober companion to travel with you to help you stay straight on vacation.
At Sober on Demand, we have sober companions with years of recovery who would love to accompany you on your next trip to ensure that you don’t take a drink. Please don’t hesitate to reach out today and ask about our sober companions.
