Our beliefs are the thought patterns that we choose to give our energy to, that over time become instilled in us. Our limiting beliefs about ourselves are the beliefs that disempower us, that hold us back, that chip away at our self-worth and self-esteem. We form our identities around these beliefs. We stop believing in ourselves. Many of our limiting beliefs contribute to our addictions and exacerbate them over time.
One such belief is that we are not strong enough to cope with our pain. Pain is a universal part of the human experience, but some of us come to believe that we can’t deal with, that we are weak, that we don’t have the emotional resilience to get through our challenges. We might believe this because we’ve struggled with a mental health issue such as depression or anxiety, which can drastically hinder our coping skills and our ability to function. We might not believe in our strength because we’ve been abused, judged or overly criticized, and we believed the disparaging things our abusers told us about ourselves. We might have experienced trauma and instead of treating ourselves with compassion and understanding, we berated ourselves and convinced ourselves that we weren’t strong.
Over time we reinforce this belief that we aren’t strong enough to cope, and we convince ourselves that it’s true. This can make us even more likely to try to run from the pain with our addictive substances, behaviors and patterns because in a way we’ve given up on ourselves. We don’t believe in ourselves so why bother trying? We feel there’s no hope left for us.
Another limiting belief many of us share around our addictions is that we can’t recover. We believe recovery is for happy, normal people, not for us. We feel irreparably damaged and broken. We feel we have nothing to offer the world. We feel we aren’t good enough, lucky enough or strong enough to recover. We believe we’re not meant to be happy. We believe that this is all there is to life.
We also tend to believe that we are alone in our addictions. This belief really limits us and our chances of recovery, because when we believe we’re alone we’re less likely to reach out for help. We think we’re the only one struggling with our particular issues. We think no one understands. We forget that there is an entire world of people dealing with very similar challenges and also working towards recovery.
We’re here to help you believe in yourself again. Call (800) 871-5440.