In recovery, the marking of time is of great significance. We all celebrate milestones in addiction recovery, and sobriety calculators help you define these milestones. The practice of marking time is primarily for ourselves and to demonstrate to others that we’re capable of living our lives substance-free regardless of what happens. Sobriety timelines are based on the concept of a daily reprieve.
What are Sobriety Calculators?
Sobriety calculators are basic time trackers that point out the years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds someone’s been sober. Users input the date they started their sobriety journey. This could be the first day you entered addiction treatment or the first time you tried to detox. The idea is that seeing the extensiveness of everything that happens in your sobriety timeline to give you a better understanding of what it takes and means to be sober.
Are Sobriety Calculators Accurate?
Here’s where most people have an issue with these calculators. Because they’re based on what you input, it can be skewed. For example, if the first time you went sober was in the year 2000, but you had a determinant relapse in 2003, shouldn’t you readjust your dates? Some people returning the clock on sobriety after a relapse are the “proper” way of counting sobriety days. For others, it makes no difference because almost 60% of people relapse after rehab. Thus setbacks are part of the sobriety journey.
What’s Your Sobriety Date?
So, based on that argument, how to find out your sobriety day? Some people consider their sobriety date to be the last day they drank or used drugs as their starting date. Others think it is the first full day without drinking or using drugs that counts. Most people prefer to use the latter since this marks the day they decided to quit.
How to Calculate Your Sobriety Date?
Using a sobriety calculator is very easy to figure out how long you’ve been sober. These calculators will take your proposed sobriety date and calculate the years, months, weeks, and days. Some of these calculators even calculate how many sober heartbeats you’ve taken. The “sober heartbeats” estimate is based on an average of 100,800 heartbeats per day, close to the average reported by the American Heart Association.
Finding Help for Addiction Near Me
Sobriety calculators are a popular concept of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other 12-step programs that focus on giving time colossal importance. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol, please reach out for help. At Lighthouse Recovery Institute, our addiction specialists are here to help you find the best treatment program to help you achieve long-term recovery.
