Is It February Already?
Here we are, more than a month into the new year that once appeared so full of bright promise. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe we harbored a sad suspicion, all along, that “new beginning” is one of the most pitifully disappointing phrases in the language.
If this “fresh start” thing is working out well for you, congratulations! Stop reading right now, and please go do something fun or useful. You’re fine.
Oh, still here? Okay, let’s have a look at what professionals in the recovery business say about the annual ritual of determination and hope. There is a bounteous selection of literature from which to glean an overview, and examples of principles on which such institutions base their treatment strategies, so this is not meant as an endorsement of any particular establishments.
“New Year’s Resolution Sobriety: Why It Fails,” from Casco Bay Recovery, gets right down to the nitty-gritty:
Willpower alone rarely sustains long-term change when dealing with a condition that affects the brain, body, and behavior.
This complicated situation demands more than what great-grandma would have called “a lick and a promise.” The project of attaining and maintaining sobriety is not amenable to superficial, hasty, careless, dismissive gestures. It requires certain minimum commitments, like, for instance, learning to recognize one’s personal triggers. To put it another way, self-honesty needs to be at the top of the to-do list, or there is not much point in proceeding.
The number of times when a person wakes up and asks, “Why did I do what I did last night?” really needs to be cut down to one time. Okay, maybe a few, but the main thing is to recognize that first step which, while it does not inevitably lead to a downfall, pretty often turns out badly.
If beginning therapy seems like an overwhelmingly huge obligation and an unbearably demanding commitment, it needn’t be. Now, with online therapists so readily available, a person can jump into it with just one tripartite question. “What is the trigger that sets me off?” “And how do I avoid that trigger?” “If it is unavoidable, how do I disarm that trigger?”
Start off easy, concentrate on identifying and disabling a single factor, and see how it goes. If the first practitioner doesn’t work out, the major online therapy services will let the patient switch and try out a different one, at no extra cost.
The Casco Bay people say,
The common mistakes when quitting alcohol also include entering sobriety without identifying personal triggers or developing coping mechanisms.
Recognize triggers and stay away. Recognize something that even might be a trigger, and shun it. If you’re not sure, read a book, get counseling, ask a friend. There are situations where even someone who has never taken a drink and has an IQ of below 50 would be qualified to advise you. “No,” they would say. “Don’t do it.”
Don’t go to your old haunts “just to socialize.” What are you, nuts? How do you not recognize blatant, shameless self-deception when it sits up and beckons you with its twisted, rotting finger? The addiction is feeding you baloney, and when you let that happen, part of your mind will always recognize you for the liar you are and make you despise yourself.
There’s feeding yourself baloney, and then there is feeding yourself other baloney to deny that you are feeding yourself baloney. The only thing more despicable than lying to yourself is knowingly and complicitly lying to yourself… and giving yourself a little wink, promising yourself that next week or next year you’ll do right, and be even more sober than sober… more sober than possibly any human has been before!
Meanwhile, the faint, tiny voice somewhere in the crevices of a tired brain is crying, “You dork! There is no such thing as being more sober than sober. Knock it off!”
Written by Pat Hartman. First published February 6, 2026.
Source:
“New Year’s Resolution Sobriety: Why It Fails,” CascoBayRecovery.com, December 22, 2025.
