Our struggles with addiction and mental health issues can bring us face to face with all kinds of challenging circumstances full of turmoil, conflict and toxicity. We manifest relationships, often with other addicts, that are unstable and full of insecurity, misunderstanding and miscommunication. We’re dealing with so much internal mental and emotional difficulty that we struggle to feel grounded, at peace and whole within ourselves. We can find it extremely difficult to protect ourselves from the toxicity we come across, in part because we ourselves are so full of toxicity that we’ve become powerful magnets attracting more to us. Part of our recovery is learning how to heal our own internal conflict and also how to protect ourselves from external toxicity.
Healing requires addressing the underlying reasons behind why we’re struggling with so much inner turmoil. We tend to want to ignore our pain and deny its existence, but our patterns of denial and suppression only exacerbate our unwellness. We want to develop new habits of confronting our difficult issues head on, of being honest with ourselves, and of being unafraid to express our truth. This is the first step in healing the toxicity within ourselves, and it’s a crucial step in learning self-love and self-protection, in order to protect ourselves from other forms of toxicity in our lives.
When we’re able to see where our own mental and emotional disturbances have been causing us so much pain, we’re also able to see that we have been manifesting and attracting more of the same from the outside world. Our inner world manifests our outer circumstances, and our inner turmoil is wreaking havoc on our daily lives, our relationships, our happiness and our ability to recover. As we’re healing internally, we start to see why and how we’ve been exposing ourselves to outside toxicity. We start to learn healthier boundaries around what we need from ourselves and from others in order to maintain our well-being. We build our internal defenses against the things other people do that hurt us. We start to identify our expectations around how we want to be treated, and we clarify what we expect to give and receive in our relationships. We become more confident and more self-assured. We feel a stronger sense of self-empowerment. As we grow stronger, we can protect ourselves more from the external sources of toxicity that have been adding to our struggles over the years. As we become more at peace within ourselves, we naturally attract more peace to us and are better able to deflect the toxic people, circumstances and situations that threaten our peace.
If you’re struggling with addiction, you’re not alone. Reach out for support. The community of Riverside Recovery has personal experience with addiction and recovery. We’re here to help you reclaim the life you love. Call (800) 871-5440 today.