Some of you may not know this, but I don’t just help people struggling with addiction; I also help their loved ones because I understand this side of the equation too. The questions I get asked the most are, “How will I know if my loved one has recovered?” Followed by, “Should I Stay?” <—More on that question next week.

These are challenging for me to answer. Not because I don’t know the signs of a healthy recovery, but because people generally don’t like to hear, “Well, we’re never ‘recovered,’ we’re always going to be in recovery and a work in progress.” People are a bit more optimistic when I explain that with a good, healthy recovery that is worked every single day, we can stay clean and emotionally sober.

Have you heard of emotional sobriety? If not, you're not alone. Many people in recovery in recovery and healing, present company included, don't hear about it until they're well into their recovery.

What is emotional sobriety?

Emotional sobriety is the ability to feel all our emotions: the good and the bad, and then process the feelings. We learn to move through, lean into, and, most of all, not ignore them.

We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem! When we ignore what our brain and body tell us, we contribute to our problems.

When we're emotionally sober, we have balance in our life. A great saying about emotional sobriety is, "My definition of balance is being able to obsess equally in all areas of my life." Funny but also quite accurate.