The Beautiful Clarity of Sobriety

Many people hear the word sober and think of dull and boring. In addiction recovery, sobriety means something else entirely. Sobriety in addiction recovery means, among many other things, clarity. For someone who’s lived day in and day out in the mental fog of addiction, clarity of thought is a great gift. Over and over I hear people in recovery say they love being able to think clearly and to remember without spaces of confusion and jumbled memory. As addiction progresses, the mental fog becomes worse and the hangovers becomes longer and more painful, creating a sense of time and mental capacity slipping away.

We’re living in a time where clarity of thought is critical, such as work. The old factory jobs done by rote are now done by automation, and the new jobs require all the concentration and clarity you can muster. Plus, we’re living in a dangerous time with Covid and now it’s variants. Being under the influence on a regular basis with impaired judgement leads to risky behavior. In the 80s, it was risky behavior leading to AIDS, now it’s viruses and just the need to be sharp in a quickly changing world.

It becomes a matter of survival. Those with clarity of mind have an advantage. Also, as in any time, long-term relationships depend on clarity and focus. When addiction begins tearing relationships apart, it’s mainly due to lack of attention paid to significant others. It’s hard to give yourself fully to relationships when you’re torn inside and don’t even know yourself anymore. Relationships become so difficult when addiction is involved, they simply fall apart from exhaustion. Getting sober and allowing the mind to heal and for clarity to develop is a process, and it gets better over time, People don’t damage their minds overnight in addiction and in recovery they don’t heal their brains overnight. Clarity in sobriety is anything but dull and boring, it’s looking at life clearly after years of progressive darkness.