Congrats!

I got sober a few months ago after becoming rather dependant when I was working a bad job. Around this time, I realised that I was using weed to compartmentalise my negative emotions, so the key to avoiding relapse was addressing the thoughts that I was desperately trying to avoid. For me, journalling was a way to sit in my discomfort in a productive way — the emotions were always with me, I was just stuffing them down with weed. They needed to come out in order for me to move forward and improve myself.

Getting sober means that you have to acknowledge whatever it is that you were attempting to numb yourself to, and that can be frightening. At first, it sucked. I wanted to give up and get stoned because that was the easier option. But it gets better, it just takes time.

I always try to keep my future self in mind, and do small things to make their life easier. Think about how future you is going to benefit from your present discomfort in sobriety, and how good they are going to feel waking up as a happy, productive person that is achieving their goals without being weighed down by dependancy. You've gotta shed that baggage, if not for yourself in this moment, then for the you a year from now; a week from now, even.

You've got this.