ADAPTING TO CHANGING TIMES
At Alpha Sober Living, we adapted pretty quickly. One of the main therapeutic outlets during this time has been service work. Food ques have sprung up pretty much everywhere catering for Thai’s with low-income. Usually these are organized by the Army, but the events are always very peaceful as it typical of Thais. In the picture below you can see the Alpha residents (with masks and gloves on) attending one of these events.
Service is a central component of recovery, as is humility. Usually of course, addicts in recovery focus on service to other people suffering from addiction. But in our sober house, and particularly during this time, we have been focused on what could be done outside of our own recovery community.
If nothing else, being stuck here during this crisis has taught us a good lesson. There’s always someone worse off than you. And to see them behaving in a more peaceful and patient manner is very humbling. Maybe we could all take a lesson from Thais in terms of how to be optimistic in the face of difficult circumstances. Recovery is also about learning to regulate our emotions. Even if we are experiencing stress, we should always keep in mind that our addiction is powerful and feeds off negative emotion and fear. Thus we should be ever vigilant and seek to maintain a positive attitude. In Alpha sober house we like to say “gratitude is our attitude”. At least, it’s something to aim for.
With such a tourism dependent economy, of course, everyone wants the tourists back as soon as possible. This is beginning to happen now and our sober living facility and addictions outpatient counselling centre will continue to provide essential counselling services throughout this time. Unfortunately it seems as though substance abuse issues have rocketed through this period, especially in the western world, as have rates of depression and anxiety. We only hope that we can be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Another cornerstone of recovery thinking.
For more information about sober living in Thailand contact us here.