Hawaii Island Recovery 
With the turn of spring can come a lot of excitement. Changing seasons and warming temperatures this spring break can lead to many long-awaited opportunities, from engaging in outdoor hobbies to the relief of getting away from academic or professional stress. However, spring break can also present a myriad of challenges, both for those continuing to manage their recovery and abstinence from drugs or alcohol or who are simply looking to enjoy their time without engaging with these substances. Despite the unique challenges that spring break can present, staying sober while still enjoying the free time and embracing the benefits of this exciting time of year is always possible.
Preparing for Spring Break
Each year, many people across the country will have an opportunity to take a well-earned spring break. While the exact time of each person’s spring break can vary, these are typically periods of free time for students around late March. For many students, this is an exciting time to get away from the stresses of academia, engage in celebration and freedom, and detach from the challenges of daily life. It is common to look forward to this time of year, replacing scholastic responsibilities with a brief moment of respite.
However, spring break can also present several unique challenges, not just for students. While spring break is typically a time directly associated with students around high school and college levels, the culture of spring break can affect anybody. Even those who have graduated from their academic careers and are ingrained in their professional lives can still hold expectations around this time of year, and be equally as influenced by these stresses and culture.
Preparing for spring break can mean various things depending on the person. For some, it can mean planning how to celebrate healthily with friends and family, or what vacation plan will provide the most relaxing escape possible. However, for those continuing to overcome substance use disorder (SUD) or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, preparing for spring break can take a different form.
Having a plan to navigate stresses, establish grounding and coping strategies, and develop effective relapse prevention strategies is paramount. Moreover, talking with friends, loved ones, peers, and professionals in dedicated addiction recovery programs can help you understand the stresses associated with spring break and prepare to navigate this time in sobriety.
The Challenges of Spring Break on Sobriety
Spring break can be challenging for a person’s sobriety for many reasons. Being prepared to navigate personal stresses and stay sober over spring break can take a variety of strategies, as well as community efforts alongside sober peers and family members. While it can be impossible to predict every stress associated with this time of year, there are some common challenges that each person may experience that can be used to create a unique plan for staying sober this spring break. Some of the most common challenges associated with staying sober this spring break include:
- Expectations around the use of drugs or alcohol, especially if a person used to celebrate with addictive substances during this time in the past
- Peer pressure to engage in the spring break “culture” of substance use
- Feeling isolated or ostracized if a person does not engage in drugs or alcohol as a way of celebrating
- Increased advertisements across television or social media for alcohol that romanticize drinking
- Continued stress or anxiety around academics
- Feelings of depression, guilt, or regret tied to this time of year
- Anxiety when facing past stresses or people
Some vacation spots or activities may also still be closely associated with past use of drugs or alcohol. For example, going on a beach trip with friends where a person used to drink can make returning to any beach difficult, being a triggering and stressful environment even when drugs or alcohol are not present.
Those in recovery who are also traveling for spring break can also face a unique situation if they leave important support structures behind, even for a brief period. Traveling away from family members, supportive friends and peers, or local outpatient support groups can make this time challenging as new stresses combine with a feeling of isolation from support that can impact the chances of slips and relapse in recovery.
Spring Break Doesn’t Just Affect Students
While spring break is most commonly associated with students, the stresses of this time of year are not limited to this demographic. Rather, this time of year can also affect adults and working professionals. For many, past engagements in spring break festivities can lead to deeply ingrained expectations around this time of year, with many people looking for ways to celebrate the coming of spring and warming temperatures. Likewise, working professionals can still be subject to the same kinds of advertisements and romanticization of substance use as anyone else.
Some offices or workplace environments may even emulate spring break cultural elements, with coworkers organizing after-work trips to bars or work parties where alcohol may be present. While it is common to be excited about the coming spring and the opportunities it brings, overcoming the stresses of spring break is not a challenge that is as isolated to students. Rather, people of any age may have to create a robust relapse prevention plan and strategies to navigate stress, urges, cravings, or other common challenges during this time of year.
Creating a Plan for a Sober Spring Break
The stress, triggers, and challenges of spring break can be difficult to overcome. Working with family members, supports, friends, peers, and professionals like those at Hawaii Island Recovery can all help you address the stresses ahead while creating a comprehensive plan for a fulfilling, restful, sober, and positive spring break.
Embrace a Comprehensive Approach to Sobriety
Spring break can present many challenges in addition to the daily stresses and hurdles of navigating daily life in either academia or professional life. However, because there can be a myriad of unique challenges surrounding this time, it is paramount to develop not just one strategy for navigating this time, but multiple working together.
Having a varied approach to managing sobriety this spring break, pursuing personal goals, managing stress, and more can be instrumental in coping with the array of different stresses from various sources. Spring break and the cultures and personal triggers therein can all affect each person differently and at different times or intensities. Being prepared for as many situations as possible, while having backup plans and strategies for managing unexpected stresses, is essential to successfully maintaining a healthy sobriety.
Hawaii Island Recovery and our community of peers and professionals can help each person identify areas of stress and triggers while working with available resources to create a comprehensive approach to sustainable sober change this spring break. Working with those who have lived through these challenges before to create a robust set of strategies for navigating urges, cravings, mental health needs, social stresses, and more is necessary for an effective approach to a sober spring break.
Disconnect From Social Media
Digital media can be a great way to connect with sober peers and family. However, it can also be a place where the romanticization of spring break can be most prevalent. Seeing others engaging in non-sober parties, as well as the advertisements common around this time of year around alcohol, can all make social media a risky and stressful place. Deciding to stay away from social media and instead plan one’s own sober spring break plans can be necessary for mitigating the chances of unhealthy reminders of past use or dangerous romanticization that can lead to unhealthy thoughts, slips, or even relapse this spring break.
Choose a Safe Place to Celebrate This Spring Break
Some spring break celebrations can be tied to specific places. Images of beach parties can be many people’s first thought when this time of year is brought up. However, each person may have a unique history with spring break, with the past use of drugs or alcohol associated with specific places or events. Avoiding attending parties that have these connotations to past use can be necessary for managing stress and triggers throughout this time, even if a person is confident in their abilities to reject offers for such substances.
Knowing places that were frequented during past use, or that may have connections to addictive substances, and distancing oneself from returning to these places can empower each person to find a safe space to try new festive activities during spring break. Likewise, if certain social groups or friends are tied to past use of drugs or alcohol and have not shown support in changing this culture, attending other events may be necessary to avoid unnecessary stress, triggers, or difficult conversations with less supportive individuals.
However, avoiding potentially stressful places doesn’t mean that spring break has to be spent hiding from stress. Rather, it can be a great opportunity to explore new festivities and options. Trying new vacation spots or hosting one’s own sober celebrations alongside family and supports can help to distance oneself from past use while still being a fulfilling, restful, and relaxing time for those in recovery.
Stay Connected With Sober Peers and Supports
Spring break can be a time when many people get together, from vacations and celebrations to small hangouts at home. However, regardless if a person is traveling or spending time with loved ones, staying connected with supportive peers is paramount.
For some, this can mean engaging in sober spring break activities alongside new social groups that understand and support the need for sober activities and wellness. However, for those traveling away from established supports either on vacation or visiting family members, staying connected is even more crucial. Being away from regular support structures can leave many feeling isolated at a time when stresses may be increasing daily. Regular communication can help to continue to benefit from a sympathetic safety net even during spring break. Making time for daily phone calls, text messages, updates, and more with supports or sponsors can all be paramount in successfully managing the stress of spring break.
Continue Outpatient Support
There is no replacement for effective, in-person, outpatient support. Hawaii Island Recovery’s dedicated outpatient group therapy programs are always available to help address urges, cravings, stress, and hurdles at any time of year. Throughout spring break, attending outpatient support meetings with us or at a local treatment facility can be crucial for overcoming spring break’s unique challenges.
If traveling, locating a local outpatient support group, even if only for a short time, can be a great way to continue benefitting from professional care and engaging in a supportive community. However, Hawaii Island Recovery also offers virtual care programs to utilize digital mediums to continue supporting each person’s recovery journey, regardless of the distance between a person and the facility. This ensures that nobody is left without professional care during this time.
Scheduling sober spring break activities around outpatient meeting options can also keep spring break structured, empowering each person to engage in fun activities and outlets while still benefitting from a supportive, sober community.
Take Time for Self-Care
Despite spring break being time off from academic responsibilities, it rarely feels like a genuine, restful “break.” Navigating stress, urges, cravings, and even continued professional stresses for those getting through the spring break season in the workplace can lead to exhaustion and mental or emotional fatigue. However, embracing spring break for its intended effort of actually getting a break can be a new way of approaching this time of year.
Focusing not on parties and gatherings but instead on self-care, rest, and relaxation can be a new and effective way to make the most of this time. Warmer weather can lead to new self-care strategies. Some ways to benefit from spring break for self-care include:
- Getting out and taking a walk
- Opening windows for some fresh air
- Outdoor meditation or yoga
- Cooking with fresh ingredients
- Planting or tending to gardens
- Turning off morning alarms to promote healthier sleep
Despite any cultural expectations around this time, there is no one, “right” way to celebrate spring break. Taking some downtime, focusing on rest, and using mindfulness strategies to relax in the present moment can all be great ways of prioritizing self-care outlets this spring break.
Have an Escape Plan
Escape plans can be instrumental in prioritizing sobriety and navigating stressful and high-risk situations. These plans can help each person not just identify the unhealthy nature of some environments or situations, but also empower each person to focus on maintaining sobriety by safely removing themselves from these situations effectively and efficiently.
Sometimes, finding oneself in difficult or high-risk situations can happen without planning for it. Knowing how to navigate a situation this spring break where drugs or alcohol may unexpectedly be present can be crucial in preventing slips or relapse. Planning ahead of time who to call, organizing transportation, establishing a meeting space with sober supports if necessary, and having clear boundaries can all empower each person to know what to do and when a situation is becoming unnecessarily risky this spring break.
Having personal grounding tools while attending any functions, even if they are not expected to have stressful elements, like a personal mantra written down, a journal, or other comforting resources can also help each person stay safe and sober this spring break.
Likewise, attending only dedicated and agreed-upon festivities with an expected social group, and deciding ahead of time at what time to leave, can give each person the agency to focus on their continued sobriety this spring break. If spring break plans go awry, either with unexpected social groups, changes to the itinerary, or going much later than anticipated, enacting an escape plan, knowing what to say to excuse oneself, and who to call can all be great measures for continuing to prioritize one’s commitment to sobriety.
Sobriety Is Always Possible
Having a sober spring break is always possible. While there are many unique stresses associated with the changing of the season, it is always possible to benefit from getting outdoors and meeting with friends while maintaining a healthy abstinence from drugs or alcohol. Using the season to explore new sober activities, self-care outlets, and relax with family and friends while distancing oneself from past unhealthy cultures or perspectives associated with the season is part of a fulfilling and new approach to sobriety.
Spring break is supposed to be a time of relaxation and respite. However, for those in recovery, it is also a time of stress and reminders of past use. At Hawaii Island Recovery, we are committed to your year-round sobriety and healing, helping you prepare for the unique stresses that come with this time of year. Our comprehensive approach to treatment can personalize a plan not just to navigate this time of year, but also to help you reinvent the onset of spring into something that celebrates sobriety and healing, rather than past use of drugs or alcohol. Our combination of proven therapeutic options, combined with the natural healing energies and opportunities of Hawaii, can help you. Call (866) 390-5070.
