Our addictions are so pervasive that they can totally overtake our entire lives, causing us to create lifestyles that are destructive and damaging to our health. Many of us are engaging in unhealthy and destructive habits, making poor lifestyle choices, and staying in toxic relationships. How do our lifestyles contribute to our addictions?
Our home environments are often problematic and bring us additional temptation, often because we’re surrounded not only by our drug of choice and many opportunities to use, but also by visceral reminders of our pain that we want to get high in order to escape. We let unhealthy past relationships and difficult life circumstances continue to be a part of our lives. We create lifestyles that maintain our addictions rather than challenge them. We associate with people who enable our addictive patterns rather than help us to question them. We stay connected to friends, family members and partners who compound our difficulties rather than helping us to grow and change.
Because we’re often not living mindfully, we’re usually not conscious of our habits, choices, decisions and behaviors, all of which comprise our lifestyles. We’re living in ways that perpetuate our addictions and cause us more pain. We maintain friendships and partnerships with people who are addicts themselves, who are not yet in recovery, who often aren’t mindful of how their patterns are contributing to ours. We enable each other, especially when we are close to each other or live together. We prevent each other from getting the help we need. We lie and cover for each other. We try to convince ourselves and each other that we’re not actually addicts or dealing with a serious problem. Our relationships are a major part of our lifestyles that contribute to our addictions and to our overall unwellness.
Our lifestyles perpetuate our addictions in other ways. We continue to live in the past and are haunted by the memories of our traumatic experiences, and we try to numb our pain with our drugs of choice. We never give ourselves the closure we need to move past the painful things we’ve been through. We continue to be driven by our pain, often compulsively and without our being aware of it. We let our pain dictate our lives, building lifestyles around our depression and anxiety, isolating ourselves from other people, not leaving the house, and not reaching out for the support we need. Our lifestyles can become the foundation upon which our addictions are allowed to fester and worsen.
The community of Riverside Recovery has personal experience with addiction and the feelings of hopelessness and disconnection that come with it. We’re here to help you reclaim the life you love. Call (800) 871-5440 today.