Maintaining your sobriety is paramount to your well-being and the success of the trip overall. It’s important to ensure that your plans are in line with your recovery and that your vacation time does not interfere with your sobriety. Particularly because intervention research on the promotion of recovery after vacations is in its infancy, the present study can contribute to the emerging field in several ways.

Any one of these activities can serve as family therapy unto itself. And once it results in a sober vacation, you may have a new set of traditions to continue. Vacation is meant for complete rest, relaxation, and a moment to escape from your regular routine, but coming back from vacation sometimes leaves you more stressed out than you were before you left. With so much to unpack, a heavy duty grocery trip on your mind from coming home to an unstocked kitchen, and getting back to a regular routine after a week with no to-do lists, our minds can go a little crazy.

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His current work examines the effect of vacation using physiological experimental method. His papers have appeared in several journals including the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. You’ve worked hard to escape the clutches of alcohol abuse with addiction treatment. Participating in a sober vacation can keep you on the path to success. Even if you feel like you have a million tasks to get done, don’t neglect rest as soon as you get home! Travelling can take a toll on your body so it’s especially important you sleep well, eat well, and take care of yourself so you don’t end up getting sick when you’re adjusting back to your normal routine.

Vacation is often a time to recharge our batteries and take a step out of our routine so that we can better think about what’s working and what’s not. Maybe you realize you want to start sleeping more, making more time for staying active, or making more time for people you care about. Take advantage of the renewed energy that vacation leaves you with, Caillet says. And do those things that allow you to engage with the world in a more thoughtful, productive, and constructive way.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say ‘No’

Further variables not directly related to health, like personal and work characteristics, are defined as other variables. Table 1 provides an overview of all instruments applied at each measurement time point. Participants are asked to respond to all questions thinking about the previous week, unless otherwise clearly stated.

For each measurement timepoint, participants receive an individual link via email that invites them to complete the online questionnaires at Unipark. Participants in the intervention group receive a personalized reminder 2 weeks after their vacation via email, asking them to complete the final questionnaire. All study-related information will be stored securely at the study site and handled with great care. Data are recorded and evaluated pseudonymised and transmitted in encrypted form. Data are stored on the server of Leuphana University in Lueneburg. Neither personal photos nor the content of notes in the app is transmitted or analysed.

BEST Vacations in Recovery

Especially during vacations, workers appear to naturally engage in sufficient recovery activities; however, this beneficial behaviour is not sustained. The smartphone app-based intervention “Holidaily” promotes recovery behaviour and, thus, mental detachment from work https://ecosoberhouse.com/ with the intension of extending the beneficial effects of workers’ vacations into their daily working life. This study protocol describes a randomised control trial (RCT) examining the efficacy of a newly-developed behaviour change smartphone app, called Holidaily.

Tropical destinations often use local produce in their cocktails. These can be enjoyed without the alcohol, and you will enjoy more memorable moments with loved ones on your vacation. This blog is for informational purposes only and should not be a substitute for medical advice. We understand that everyone’s situation is unique, and this content is to provide an overall understanding of eating disorders.

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Continually acknowledging the strides you are making is a great way to reinforce better habits. Finding new passions and exploring new places can give you a different perspective, broaden your horizons, help you discover new things about yourself and unleash untapped potential in your recovery efforts. If you are relatively new to sobriety, “getting away” might simply not be wise. If you are still experiencing a fair amount of anxiety and uneasiness, a vacation might slow your recovery efforts or lead to a setback. Equally important to the steps above is knowing things you should not do with your planned vacation.

Secondary health-related outcomes will also be compared in the intervention and waitlist-control groups. It is important to note that all analyses related to secondary outcomes will be descriptive and non-explanatory in nature. As intervention research on promoting recovery after vacations is in its infancy, evaluating a wide range of secondary outcomes will help us gain knowledge to generate further hypotheses and guide future studies. Finally, all variables not directly related to health, like personal and work characteristics, are considered other variables. Other variables will be used to evaluate a potentially underlying mechanism, effect modifier and confounders of the primary study outcome.

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Dailys are based on behavioural activation strategies and refer to specific activities that positively influence mental health [79]. To promote behavioural change, appropriate behaviour-change techniques — like health-development tracking and prompts — were included [80]. An important vacationing in recovery element of the gamified app is its potential to reward participants by enabling the collection of points in exchange for completing Dailys and tracking one’s wellbeing (for examples, see Additional file 1). A vacation is a time to relax and take a break from the daily grind at work.

  • Participants are excluded if they are taking part in other recovery/stress training, engaging in psychotherapy, or using variable-dose medication for sleeping complaints.
  • We have everything from Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park to the Bruce Dice Mineralogical Museum.
  • Some triggers include being around specific foods or meals, while others include being around alcohol, engaging in certain conversations or being in large crowds of people.
  • Research suggests that this mode of experiencing new things (as long as they aren’t perceived as stressors) actually light up the reward centers of our brains, stimulating feel-good neurotransmitters.
  • As intervention research on promoting recovery after vacations is in its infancy, evaluating a wide range of secondary outcomes will help us gain knowledge to generate further hypotheses and guide future studies.