When living with addiction and mental health issues, many of us know we’re in pain, but we don’t know why exactly. We can tell that we’re afraid, but we often aren’t conscious of what our fears actually are. Our fears are stored in our subconscious minds, beneath the conscious awareness of our thinking minds. This means that we often don’t know why we have the thoughts, emotions and fears that we do. We’re not consciously aware of why we think and feel in the ways we do. Our subconscious mind rules the majority of our lives, so when we have things that are unhealed within us, those things are often what are driving our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We’re acting out of fear rather than faith. We’re manifesting out of pain rather than strength and self-assuredness.
We can become more conscious of the fears stored in our subconscious minds by paying more attention to our triggers, our emotional responses, and our reactions to stress. How do we react when something bothers us? How do we respond to people who challenge us? What are our emotional responses and behavioral patterns? What are our recurring issues, life cycles and relationship patterns? Do we feel easily threatened by other people’s happiness or success? Do we get clingy, obsessive, or dependent in our relationships? How do we move through our days? What are our default thought patterns?
How we respond to things and to people is often an indicator of our fears, including the ones we’re not yet conscious of. Examining our patterns and responses can inform us on what we’re actually afraid of. If we feel competitive and threatened by other people’s happiness, for example, we might be struggling with fears of inadequacy and inferiority. If we become co-dependent or overly needy in relationships, we might be afraid of abandonment and have a fear of being alone. If we default to thinking in terms of negativity and pessimism, we might fear the unknown and be uncomfortable with uncertainty and loss of control. If we shy away from taking risks or challenging ourselves, we might have a fear of responsibility or even of success.
Examining our unconscious fears allows us to better work with our thoughts, emotions and behaviors so that we can start developing healthier patterns for ourselves as we work to heal.
Your new life starts today. Let Riverside Recovery be your support system as you do the work to heal. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information on our addiction recovery. treatment programs.