Anyone who is struggling with drugs or alcohol knows that overcoming addiction is not just a case of making a resolution and sticking to it. The New Year is traditionally the time when we all tend to make some kind of lifestyle change in recognition of turning over a new page for the next 12 months. The majority of people make token resolutions such as giving up candy or joining a gym. However, it is not possible to be flippant about making the decision to quit something you’re addicted to.

The New Year is traditionally the time when we review our lives and make resolutions to improve it. The majority of people come out of the holiday season with a little extra weight or bearing other signs of over indulgence. However, many of us fail to stick to our resolutions, perhaps because we tend to put a bit too much extra pressure on ourselves.

Many people take the New Year as an opportunity to take a personal inventory and assess their lives to find how they can improve themselves going forward. For people in recovery, they have achieved a great deal and so taking a recovery inventory and acknowledging those successes is important.

Dependency can be reliance on a substance, activity or person where an individual treats something or someone as more important than themselves.

Shifting from the old year into the new gives us all the opportunity to take a retrospective look at our lives and make adjustments for a more positive future. This is especially important for recovering addicts who can benefit greatly from focusing more on what is to come, rather than dwelling on what has been. Making New Year resolutions is a great way to incorporate new, healthy behaviors into your life while eliminating the habits or attitudes that hold you back from a full life in sobriety.