When it comes to traveling in recovery, it’s always smart to drop an anchor upon arriving at your destination. Whether it be a call to the family at home or spending thirty minutes blogging, importing a routine from you home base lifestyle help keeps away addictive thinking… and relapse.
Take for instance a old southern boy like myself while in Japan, definitely a fish out of water (albeit a happy fish) case. Gone are my day to day routines, familiar places and things, not to mention the added stress of trying to communicate and get around. If not careful there are two negative things that could happen, the first being that I’ll do something “stupid” because I’m breaking new ground in the old noggin and gotten out of my routine decision making practices.
That sort makes sense when thinking about the addictive brain, but the second possibility seems to happen to recovering alcoholics more often than not and is totally illogical. I call this occurrence a “New Rules” event. These events may be associated with a holiday cruise, wedding, foreign travel, or even major storms and the alcoholic becomes convinced that these new conditions temporarily exempt them from their disease. Just not true.
The names, faces, and places may have change, but I’ll always be the same alcoholic in recovery and there are no “new rules” and certainly no temporary exemptions.
