Fighting Discouragement In Early Recovery: 5 Tools You Can Use Today

When discouragement weighs heavily on us like the world upon Atlas’s shoulders, we must remember a couple of very important things. Early on in recovery, we may not see all the behaviors that led us astray, but we must be careful and guard against relapse. Our emotional states are fragile in this early time, and with us not having built up great coping skills, we are prone to relapse. We, in recovery, seem to all too often forget that the pain out there is much worse than the pain of facing these ghosts and skeletons of our past traumas. However, to continue our recovery journey, we must overcome our discouragement and move forward.

There are tools to combat discouragement in early recovery. We have our recovery meetings, we have counsellors, therapists, and most importantly, our Higher Power. We cannot, in my opinion, do this on our own. Many have tried to “white knuckle” it, and very few have succeeded. With the right implementation of coping tools and continuously educating ourselves, we have a fighting chance. Every individual is different, and while some of these are things we personally must decide upon, I encourage everyone to seek professional help and planning when in early recovery.

Tools for Fighting Discouragement in Early Recovery

These are your “bread and butter” tools for coping with discouragement. We often complicate things, and that, in and of itself, can lead to discouragement. Keep it simple, and that’s what we do here.

Recovery Meetings:

For many individuals, this is one of the main support tools that you can use in combating early recovery discouragement. Find a home meeting, get to know people. Here we can build a support network that will aid us in facing life. A sponsor and working the steps are the keys for success.

Going to meetings and getting connected is a great way to combat feelings of discouragement in early sobriety. Knowing we are not alone in our struggles and finding like-minded inviduals can help us remain balanced and accountable in early recovery.

Counsellors/Therapists:

There is something to be said about seeking professional help. Especially in early recovery. Many of us are dealing with a lot of traumas when we come into recovery. Dealing with these traumas on our own can be a sure-fire way to feeling discouraged in early sobriety. It’s important that we address these issues with trained professionals that can help guide us.

We want to get the weights lifted off our shoulders to see the world anew. Part of that is the work we put in. Here is where some of that work is done. One of the best ways to stay encouraged in early recovery is by seeking the aid of a professionally licensed doctor or therapist.

Journaling/Gratuity Journal:

Yeah, many people will balk at this tool set. A lot of us guys will for sure. However, don’t diss it before you really give it a good effort. Here is where you can basically throw it all on paper and if you must, set it on fire (please do this responsibly, not indoors or anywhere where there could be a danger of fire spreading).

You can do with this paper anything that you wish to. I suggest keeping them for a month and then going back over them from the beginning. You may just surprise yourself in how far your thinking can change at times. Early recovery, it’s going to change. It’s a great way to see progress for inside matters. It is a great way, when feeling discouraged in early sobriety to get it all out.

I, myself, journal a lot. I have two specific journals that I work with. A gratuity journal and a regular journal about my day and the emotions I have felt throughout it. I have noticed that when I start with gratuity in the morning, I can overcome discouragement a lot easier.

Meditation/Reflection:

In active addiction, we didn’t take the time to reflect or be quiet with ourselves. I’m willing to wager, from my own experience, that we spend a whole lot of time avoiding that very thing. We, at least I did, have a hard time facing ourselves. Learning to quiet the outside noise and get comfortable in our own thoughts is a great way to start seeing the bigger picture. There will be times we make mistakes in our journey; these are great moments to take a few minutes to reflect upon them.

When we feel discouragement in our progress in early recovery, it’s a good idea to sit still. We need to realize that we aren’t always used to the emotions that we face, and this can easily lead to us feeling discouraged in early sobriety. The key is for us to start to understand our emotions, and taking the time to reflect on them allows us to see how they fit in.

Higher Power:

To me, this is probably the most important aspect of early recovery. We find in our addictions that we have purely leaned in on our understandings and our perceptions of the world around us. Somewhere along the way, our coping skills were built in such a way to keep “chasing the dragon”. We no longer could manage our lives and resorted to drugs and alcohol to numb that pain.

We didn’t know how to live a life of fulfilment and left a wide path of chaos in its wake. The important thing here is just getting on the spiritual path. Learning to find a Higher Power and starting to build a personal relationship. This gives us one of the best ways to stay encouraged in early recovery, connection to something far greater than ourselves.

Encouragement for Overcoming Discouragement in Early Recovery

There are a lot of tools and resources out there for us on our recovery journey. It’s paramount to our success that we try each tool available to us. Some things will work better for others, and knowing what works for us will help us battle those times that we just feel like we can’t take it anymore.

I’m not going to lie and say with these tools in your belt things will just automatically get easier. Something that I have learned along the way is that things will be difficult and sometimes just flat out feel impossible for no reason other than our hearts are heavy with feelings of remorse, guilt, and even shame. It’s understandable and okay that we have these emotions. Our journey through the living hell of addiction has given us the right to have these emotions.

However, it is important that while we acknowledge these emotions, that we do not allow them to cloud our hearts and minds and push us away from the right to have a life free of addiction. For that to happen, we will have to do a lot of what Ken Wilber called “shadow work”, facing the parts of ourselves we usually avoid. We’re going to have to pull those ghosts and skeletons on out and face them head on.

Thankfully, it is about progress and not perfection. And remember, we didn’t get here because of one thing that happened in our lives. Just as it took time to become addicted and get to our own form of rock bottom, it’s going to take time to rebuild. This is where courage comes in. This is real, meaningful courage. To continue when every bitter piece of the past comes howling at our gates. To face it head on and acknowledge our part and work to pick up the pieces.

My love and prayers are with everyone who finds themselves on this journey of recovery. It’s not always easy, it’s not always beautiful, but it is meaningful. You are worth it.

Need Help?

SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) — free, confidential, 24/7/365 treatment referral and information for individuals and families; available in English and Spanish.
FindTreatment.gov: a directory for finding treatment options in the U.S.
If you’re in crisis or thinking about hurting yourself, call or text 988 (U.S.) for free, confidential, 24/7 support from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Some links below are affiliate links—if you click and buy, this site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the lights on, and only services worth recommending get linked.

Talkspace provides virtual therapy (and also offers psychiatry services on its platform), so support can happen from a phone or computer instead of an office visit.
Online-Therapy.com is a CBT-focused online therapy platform that combines a self-guided program (sections + worksheets) with therapist support, including messaging and optional live sessions depending on subscription level.
Brightside offers an online Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for substance use disorder, built around a weekly schedule that includes group therapy, individual therapy, and psychiatry/med consults as needed.

Keep Going

Early Recovery Guide: Start Here (the “what to do in the first days/weeks” playbook).
Detox vs Rehab vs IOP (What level of care is right for you?)
First Meeting Guide (Nervous about your first meeting?)
Craving Plan (Coming soon)
Boundaries (Coming soon)

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