Did you know that Sobriety is not just for the drug addict or alcoholic? 

It’s for all of us. 

I want to reframe the term Sobriety. In my experience, it is not about getting treatment for addiction, it is about using our mindfulness and will to learn how we really discover who we have really been, observing our emotional status along with our mental and physical health. It is the uncovering and practice of being a new version of ourselves that is self-reliant, emotionally stable, mentally clear. To remove the reasons we may drink, smoke, have affairs, are dishonest, jealous, afraid, etc. Emotional Sobriety is a state of overall clarity, to be able to master levelheadedness, and feel peace. It’s mature, poised, healthy, and heart-centered living. It grants the opportunity to feel through things in a more comprehensive and healthy way.

• Emotional Sobriety Training (EMSO) can of course assist in recovery from drugs and alcohol, as well as help people in their life with the painful emotions which may cause mental health issues. These feelings of anger, shame, fear, etc. come from believing that we are inadequate, unimportant, trick-able, etc. These beliefs and emotions lead us to use behaviors of survival, which are compulsive reactions to our past trauma. This leads us to maintain an Intoxicated Identity. The “Mr. Hyde” phenomenon.
• We know that emotions are chemicals and we can become addicted to making these chemicals in our bodies. These are biochemicals. Can our Emotional Insobriety, therefore, be our primary problem? Dependence on the emotions we have been making since childhood? Biochemical addiction that followed us up to this day? And the compulsion of our ego’s will to maintain them. Are we being puppeted by past false beliefs about ourselves which allow these chemicals to be readily made? Can we see that the reason we turn into someone we don’t recognize and don’t intend on becoming, is a reaction to our past trauma? It’s why we become Mr. Hyde—lie, defend, argue, fight, steal, drink, use drugs, etc.
• Even those of us who never even took a drink or tried drugs are not necessarily healthy. We still become jealous, belligerent, manipulative; we are not levelheaded, clear, or peaceful in the majority of our lives. When we realize our pain is our reason for the intoxication, our substance abuse was not the problem after all. And addiction recovery is not the final solution.
• Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation may be essential programs to help an alcohol problem, creating physical sobriety or getting clean, yet getting truly sober requires a person to take a better and whole assessment and repair of their human existence. Looking at the real reason for Mr. Hyde making an appearance in the first place. What we feel precedes it. Up until now, we have not had as thorough a curriculum to call you out of your comfort zone and ask more of you to really save yourself and get sober once and for all. To take your recovery into your own hands, to remove the negative emotions, to go from “dry drunk” to truly “happy, joyous and free”, to take long-term addiction and finally find that you were the remedy all along. To not get stuck in spiritual pride or sobriety programs, but learn regulating feelings, perspective-shifting, and self-responsibility over all things in your life, allowing you to achieve emotional sobriety giving you complete control of your emotional climate.

Bill W. of A.A. said perhaps the 12 steps wouldn’t be enough.

This is why EMSO Training was developed (as I believe, Bill would have wanted it) requiring real maturity, honesty, and work.