Pink Clouding in Recovery: What You Need to Know
Pink clouding describes the euphoric, almost giddy feelings many people feel in early recovery. Often experienced after drug detox, pink clouding makes people feel motivated and optimistic about their recovery.
Don’t get us wrong: these are great feelings to experience. Feeling positive about the new life you’ll be able to build at Cliffside Malibu is an important part of the recovery process. But pink clouding does come with occasional risks and learning how to navigate this exciting stage of recovery will set you up for lasting success.
Pink Clouding: What it Means and How to Avoid its Risks
Recovery from drugs or alcohol feels good, and it’s especially true after going through detox. Once the mental and physical symptoms of withdrawal fade, it’s very common to feel great.
This is what many in the recovery world call the pink cloud, the honeymoon stage or pink cloud syndrome. The phrase itself seems to have originated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Basically, pink clouding is experiencing feelings of euphoria and optimism during early recovery. A person in the pink cloud feels excited about their journey, eager to be present for it and looks forward to building a new life for themselves free from addictive substances.
Pink clouding sounds good, and it often is. Emotions play a huge role in recovery, and they can be difficult. It’s a time where sleep and eating habits can change dramatically, and like every major life change, it’s common to feel anxious and even depressed over what’s coming next. Pink clouding can feel like a reward after the hard work of drug detox.
However, pink clouding comes with certain risks. It can make someone complacent in recovery, paving the way for potential relapses. It can also make a person underestimate the challenges and commitments recovery needs to last.
Knowing how to recognize pink clouding while staying emotionally mindful is a great way to keep your feet on the ground while enjoying the new life you built to the fullest.
Signs of Pink Clouding: What Does Pink Cloud Syndrome Feel Like?
Experiencing the pink cloud often feels a little like this: You’re recovering from detox, and you’re feeling tired and wrung out. All of a sudden, you feel like you’re almost floating. It’s like your future just opened for you, that you’re capable of anything, and you’re genuinely excited about the recovery process. If you’ve been the quiet one during your group sessions, you realize that you’ve got your hand up. You’re the first person to arrive, and you’re the one stacking chairs at the end of it. You’re encouraging your friends to be just as excited as you are.
Although everybody experiences the pink cloud differently, most people experience some common emotions during this stage of recovery:
- Feelings of euphoria
- Feeling confident about your recovery
- Increased emotional awareness
- Feeling at peace mentally
- Feeling like you can take on the world
While these are great things to experience, they also illustrate how pink clouding is different from healthy optimism. Healthy optimism is grounded and realistic, two things that make it very different from pink clouding.
Healthy Optimism vs. Pink Clouding
Here are some other ways healthy optimism is different from the pink cloud:
- Realism: Healthy optimism recognizes that there are going to be challenges and even setbacks during your recovery but the outcome is still going to be a good one. Healthy optimism also recognizes that you’re a person with flaws and weaknesses, helping you stay grounded and resilient.
- Resilience: Healthy optimism recognizes setbacks (like relapses) as merely temporary events that can be learned from.
- Acceptance: Healthy optimism recognizes that your energy is best focused on the things you can change.
- Healthy coping: Healthy optimism doesn’t try to hide from difficult emotions like anxiety, sadness and fear. Instead, it helps you recognize and find healthy ways to deal with them, like asking for help when things get hard.
Pink clouding feels good and can be very useful in early recovery. But it’s always better to leverage that energy into a healthy, grounded mindset that recognizes the challenges of recovery.
So, How Long Does the Pink Cloud Effect Last?
This isn’t an easy question to answer. Pink clouding is highly personal. For some, it might last around a week; another person might be in the pink cloud for a few months.
People experience the pink cloud differently, too. Some people might feel it right after detoxing; another person might feel it when they’re ready to enter an outpatient program. Pink clouding might be incredibly intense for one person, or it may feel like a regular good mood for others.
While no official studies on pink clouding have been done, a few of the factors that determine how long it lasts may include:
- How robust a person’s support system is
- How long they were dealing with addiction
- Their overall mental health and any co-occurring conditions
What Causes the Pink Cloud?
There are many factors that contribute to pink clouding. First, our brains play a major role. Addictive drugs work by causing chemical changes in the brain. After drug detox and withdrawal, our brains return to a more balanced state, with neurotransmitters like dopamine returning to their normal levels. Our emotions, no longer blunted (or amplified) by the effects of drugs, also return to normalcy. Combined, this is a big reason why the pink cloud feels so good.
Also, the initial big milestones people experience in early recovery contribute to the pink cloud. Getting through drug detox is a huge win, and it’s okay to feel proud and good about yourself when you reach it. Plus, living life without the repetitive behaviors of addiction is another big emotional lift.
Pink Clouding: The Positive…
Pink clouding does have some real benefits. As we said, emotions play a huge role in recovery, and feeling a big emotional boost early on can be just the thing to inspire you to keep going, to reach the next milestone and live your best life without addictive substances.
These good feelings also reinforce positive behaviors, helping you to stay in treatment and see your journey through to the end.
…and the Negative
Unfortunately, there’s a downside to pink clouding. The biggest negative can be overconfidence. Being in the pink cloud can make you feel like you can survive anything, including environments that revolve around substance abuse and other dangers. It can cause your expectations to become unrealistic, convincing you that recovery won’t have any setbacks or challenges to deal with.
In some cases, it’s possible to become so overconfident that leaving treatment early seems like a good move. It never is.
The pink cloud also carries with it a real risk of developing unhealthy coping strategies, like not asking for help when times get tough, or bottling up difficult emotions instead of talking them out.
Finally, overconfidence in recovery often leads to a relapse. While relapse isn’t the end of the world, it’s a serious setback that requires time and effort to address. As good as the pink cloud feels, it can also blind you to the realities of recovery.
Strategies for Navigating the Pink Cloud
Here’s the main thing to remember about the pink cloud: it’s temporary. While it certainly feels great when you’re in it, the pink cloud eventually fades. Without it, are you ready to continue going forward in recovery?
There are a few things you can do to make sure your recovery stays on track once the pink cloud fades:
- Ask for Help: If you’re struggling, you’re not alone or weak. As good as the pink cloud feels, you can’t do it all on your own. We’re here to help.
- Stay Calm and Work Your Program: Recovery lasts as long as it needs to. Don’t let the pink cloud fool you and make you think you’re finished when you’re not. Recovery isn’t a race; it’s a long-term journey that lasts a lifetime.
- Strive for Progress, Not Perfection: The pink cloud can give you high expectations, but the reality is that none of us are perfect. You will stumble on this journey…and you’ll pick yourself back up.
- Get Grounded: At Cliffside Malibu, we make extensive use of proven therapies and treatment approaches like the Stages of Change, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). These will help you change your thought patterns and teach you effective ways to manage triggers and cravings. They’ll also help you stay grounded in recovery, practicing healthy optimism with a realistic view of a bright future.
- Build Your System: We’ll help you create an effective, lasting support system that’ll serve you through your entire recovery, including a robust aftercare program.
Cliffside Malibu is your companion through your recovery journey. We know the ups and downs of recovery, and we’ll help you keep your eyes on the real goal: freeing yourself from addiction and living your best life. Reach out today at (855) 403-5641 to learn more.