5 Essential Recovery Skills for Long-Term Sobriety

If you've relapsed more than once, you've probably wondered:

Why can some people stay sober while I keep ending up back in the same place?

It's easy to assume that people who achieve long-term sobriety simply have more willpower. Maybe they're more motivated. Maybe they never miss a meeting, always call their sponsor, follow the perfect recovery plan, and somehow make the right decision every time.

That's not really how recovery works.

People who stay sober still have cravings. They get angry, defensive, lonely, overwhelmed, bored, and tired of working on their recovery.

The difference isn't that they never struggle.

The difference is often the skills they've developed to handle those struggles without returning to alcohol or drugs.

There are five essential recovery skills that can make a major difference in long-term sobriety: self-honesty, open-mindedness, distress tolerance, patience, and humility.

And the last one may be...