For those of us struggling with addictions who have tried to recover, we know just how hard it can be. Many of us try to face the recovery process alone. We think that because it is our issue, we should get through it on our own. We feel we’ve burdened the people who care about us, and we don’t want to inconvenience or trouble them any more than we already have. The truth is, though, the people in our lives who have our best interests at heart want nothing more than for us to be happy and healthy, and they want to help. Rejecting other people’s help can actually deter us in our healing and hinder our progress. Having support can sometimes mean the difference between recovering successfully and falling back into our addictive cycles. Why is it so hard to recover by ourselves?
When we are living with addictive patterns, it isn’t just the substances and behaviors we’re addicted to. We’ve also developed debilitating beliefs about ourselves filled with shame and fear that we hold onto and perpetuate in addictive ways. We’ve stored our traumas within us and used them to inform how we live, how we move through life. When we isolate ourselves to deal with all these things on our own, very often we can’t see past them. We can’t be objective. Logic and reason, and knowing how to help ourselves, get buried underneath the toxic emotions, the confusion, the overwhelm. In short, we’re not ourselves, and our minds aren’t necessarily functioning healthily. Other people can help us to get out of our own way. They can help us to see the things we’ve been unable or unwilling to see.
The people in our lives often serve as reflections of us and of our wounds, fears and pain. They hold up a mirror to everything we’re trying to avoid, everything we’re trying to hide from. Where we might have been able to run from things on our own, other people have a way of making that harder for us to do, and that’s a good thing. While we might resent them for that, the lessons we learn are instrumental to our growth and expansion. Recovery means facing the things we don’t always feel ready to face. Other people can be our support system through these difficulties. Very often we are so in our heads, drowning in our own thoughts and emotions that we can’t see our way out. We can’t help ourselves. Other people can be our lifeline when we most need it.
Riverside can be that lifeline. You don’t have to go it alone. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information.