Many of us living with addiction can remember a time in our lives when we had considerably more energy. We were able to tackle our daily routines and keep up with our regular schedules. We juggled multiple different demands all at once. Our work and other obligations didn’t feel so strenuous or tiresome. We didn’t feel nearly as exhausted and depleted as we do now. If we were to examine what we give our energy to, we would see that our addictions have taken up the vast majority of our time, focus and commitment. Our addictions have become our priority, our major focus in life, depleting our energy, and taking our focus and motivation away from creating the lives we want for ourselves. We can’t possibly give ourselves our attention and energy if we’re constantly inundating ourselves with toxic substances and behaviors. We can’t love ourselves fully when we’re trapped in the unhealthy relationships that often accompany our addictions. We’ve been consistently giving our energy to our addictions, which means we’ve been actively self-destructing and directly contributing to our unwellness.
Our addictions stifle our growth and limit our potential. They take us away from our inner selves and create facades that mask our pain and our truth. Underneath the layers of toxicity there is an inner light waiting for us to focus on and magnify it. The truth of who we are doesn’t get lost to addiction. It simply gets hidden from view. When we’re applying our energy to maintaining our addictions, we’re not taking the time to find ourselves, to discover what brings us happiness and fulfillment, to find our purpose and our path in life. We’re often heavily sedated by our drugs of choice, which cause us to be totally distracted from our real selves. Our energy goes to maintaining the lifestyle that will enable our addictions to continue. We struggle to come up with the money to afford our drugs. We’re constantly lying to people, covering up for ourselves, making excuses and manipulating people into enabling our addictions. This toxic misuse of our energy is exhausting and draining. It literally drains us of our creative energy, our productivity, our resourcefulness. We feel so tired we want to give up on ourselves. We feel depressed and hopeless.
We often don’t want to look at our addictions honestly and openly. We’re ashamed that we’ve wasted so much of our lives. If we examine our behaviors and our patterns, we’ll see that the energy we could have been giving to pursuing our goals and finding fulfillment has been going to our addictions. The good news is that it’s never too late to shift our priorities and begin the work to recover. Recovery and true healing are possible!
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.