So I'm coming up on 7 years clean and sober I attend my meetings weekly I work in the field of addiction recovery however I find that I go home every night and I'm perfectly content just going home getting into my pajamas turning on the TV and watching Netflix or something else until I go to sleep it throws my brain into somewhat of a panic if I know that I have to come home and then go out again I don't know what this is is it isolation PTSD irrational fear I feel like I'm pretty pretty well adjusted not overly or under emotional just wondering what everybody's thoughts are on that.
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I had social anxiety to the max and the drinking obviously helped mask that. Once I got sober I had to face the fact that I don’t necessarily enjoy being around lots of people for very long even though I’ve been able to get to a place where I can be comfortable and confident around others. I still prefer home, peace, solitude. I do struggle with staying on the right side of the line between unhealthy self-isolation vs happy home body because we are social creatures after all. Studies show our brain health and long term cerebral functions are impacted by how social we are more than the other contributing factors (like diet, exercise, learning new skills, etc). Goes to show how important it is. Anyways, maybe it’s about finding the right people. That you can look forward to seeing even after a day of work. I’m working on that myself..
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You may be either. Great question! And you very well could become someone who does something you couldn’t even possibly imagine.
You are probably just a home body and I think it's fine to do that on workdays. Weekends you should make an effort to socialize outside of your work circles. Research on the subject is showing isolation is worse for humans than smoking, high blood pressure, etc. It's obviously detrimental to our health and I still struggle to get out too. We just need to actively work at it. Good luck to ya
When I was a counselor I found the job very emotionally draining and given the client population I worked with I found it difficult to relate to people anymore. I found the normal stuff of day to day boring and couldn't relate and sometimes still can't and I have been out of the field for a long time. I would not want to interact with a lot of people because the lack of understanding they had and I can't go to meetings anymore because I just see clients or worse judge them due to the stories I heard and clients I worked with. I am trying to make friends now, but spend a lot of my time alone or with family. I used to be a social butterfly but changing of states and the further I get in soberity I find relating to normal society more difficult.