{"id":1210,"date":"2025-06-29T11:12:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T10:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2025-06-29T11:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T10:12:53","slug":"the-importance-of-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/29\/the-importance-of-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am blessed today that I have been given an apartment under the \u2018Housing First\u2019 scheme jointly run by the Galway City Council, Galway Simon, Cope Galway and the HSE. The scheme works on a model of housing someone and then work on their life challenges rather than the archaic system of fixing a persons\u2019 challenges and then housing them. Today I\u2019m very grateful for the position I\u2019m in. I did a meeting online yesterday and I could see the background of one of the attendees. I could tell straight away he was in Abbey House, one of the better homeless shelters I have once spent time in. Most homeless shelters in Galway you are welcomed by a gated door, to ensure the safety of who comes and goes. It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard, generally there will always be at least one person in the midst of addiction whilst you are trying to stay sober. Thankfully today I can get to a point of recovery, detox and sobriety faster than I could in homeless accommodation. I don\u2019t have a bad word to say about Abbey House or the Fairgreen Hostel. They do their utmost to help, especially if you&#8217;re trying to get sober. They are trained professionals with empathy for those struggling with addiction. Living in a tent is no place to even attempt to detox, a lot of the hostels nowadays offer respite rooms and the opportunity to stay until you&#8217;re in a position of sobriety. As I\u2019ve mentioned I\u2019m one of the lucky ones, I have also been given opportunities to detox thanks to my psychiatric team. The Adult Acute Mental Health Unit is another place I highly regard as a good environment to get sober if you suffer from mental health challenges, they have always been very good to me. Some of us are lucky enough to have friends and colleagues who may be more than willing to help, again this can only promote a healthier environment to get sober. It can be the simple things too. My ideal environment and one I can suggest for detox would be thinking of the opposite of HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired). If you&#8217;re lucky enough to have a fridge make sure it\u2019s stocked up, try and practice gratitude to make you happier, connect with friends or family (if you&#8217;re not in a position to do this connect with others\u2019 in recovery through online or in person meetings. Finally rest, get as much Librium and sleep into you as possible. Your body probably needs it and probably deserves it. I was once told relapse is like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson time and time again and getting knocked out time and time again.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recovery environment is important too, they say in AA \u2018People, Places and Things\u2019. At present I am only talking to my family and myself. I\u2019m avoiding people I used to drink or gamble with, I feel selfish at times for this but I now must protect my early sobriety. I do my best to avoid the city centre, I was a street drinker and Eyre Square was my playground. Things I\u2019m avoiding include getting worked up. For example my social welfare application was lost so I had to visit INTREO again to reapply. This at first annoyed me, but I let it slide. I need to avoid traits like perfectionism for now. It is quite simply a luxury I cannot afford. It will drive me back drinking if I don\u2019t lay back a bit. My positive environments today include Dangan (A beautiful landscaped area in Galway, it\u2019s scenic and serene, the river flows by its side. I cannot wait to visit it tomorrow.) Meetings are my latest achievement, this is probably the best environment an addict can hope to be part of. Lastly, I&#8217;m finally communicating with my family again, I no longer feel ashamed of my disease and have come to terms with a lot of the things I have done in addiction. As they say in AA and Residential Treatment Centres across Ireland \u2018I am not my addiction\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>I am blessed today that I have been given an apartment under the \u2018Housing First\u2019 scheme jointly run by the Galway City Council, Galway Simon, Cope Galway and the HSE. The scheme works on a model of housing someone and then work on their life challenges rather than the archaic ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,51,66,67,63,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-addiction","category-fastforward","category-flashback","category-homelessness","category-livingsober","category-mentalhealth","category-reflections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sober.ie V1.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"827\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@#\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shanley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025\"},\"headline\":\"The Importance of Environment\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\"},\"wordCount\":720,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Addiction\",\"Fast Forward\",\"Flashback\",\"Homelessness\",\"Living Sober\",\"Mental Health\",\"Reflections\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\",\"name\":\"The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png\",\"width\":1240,\"height\":827},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Importance of Environment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/\",\"name\":\"Sober.ie V1.0\",\"description\":\"Happy Living\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sober.ie\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SoberLogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SoberLogo.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Sober.ie\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025\",\"name\":\"Shanley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dbbd30e52f8734dde1221b7df7cf0c5bab6216912a29b6af1fe6f9268c6f7277?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dbbd30e52f8734dde1221b7df7cf0c5bab6216912a29b6af1fe6f9268c6f7277?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shanley\"},\"description\":\"Twenty Five Years of Addiction Sums Me Up\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/sober.ie\",\"#\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/#\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/author\/conor-shanley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3","description":"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3","og_description":"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.","og_url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/","og_site_name":"Sober.ie V1.3","article_published_time":"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1240,"height":827,"url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Shanley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@#","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shanley","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/"},"author":{"name":"Shanley","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025"},"headline":"The Importance of Environment","datePublished":"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/"},"wordCount":720,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","articleSection":["Addiction","Fast Forward","Flashback","Homelessness","Living Sober","Mental Health","Reflections"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/","url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/","name":"The Importance of Environment - Sober.ie V1.3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","datePublished":"2025-06-29T10:12:53+00:00","description":"It brought me back to my times trying to get sober whilst in homeless accommodation. It can be very hard,.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","width":1240,"height":827},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-importance-of-environment\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Importance of Environment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/","name":"Sober.ie V1.0","description":"Happy Living","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization","name":"Sober.ie","url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SoberLogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SoberLogo.png","width":300,"height":100,"caption":"Sober.ie"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025","name":"Shanley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dbbd30e52f8734dde1221b7df7cf0c5bab6216912a29b6af1fe6f9268c6f7277?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dbbd30e52f8734dde1221b7df7cf0c5bab6216912a29b6af1fe6f9268c6f7277?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Shanley"},"description":"Twenty Five Years of Addiction Sums Me Up","sameAs":["https:\/\/sober.ie","#","https:\/\/x.com\/#"],"url":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/author\/conor-shanley\/"}]}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-5.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}