Addiction is a battle of many kinds—it is a mental struggle, a physical battle of resisting urges and desires, and an emotional grind of trying to properly handle relationships affected by the damage of the addiction itself. With such an uphill battle, many trials and tribulations tend to ensue.
Maintaining a sense of awareness regarding these problems is important after weeks or even months of therapy, as well as for the bumpy road of the recovery process. Preparing for even just a few of the battles ahead can help push off the oncoming storm ahead that millions of addicts face every year.
Addressing the Negative Emotions
A number of ugly emotions tend to rear their heads in the wake of an addiction, especially after being discovered by close loved ones in your life. These include stress, shame, and trauma.
This can be especially difficult when addicts often use these addicting drugs to quell these feelings in the first place. Being forced to let go of them can feel like trying to learn to ride a bike without the training wheels, but one is just as possible as the other.
Admitting to these emotions rather than hiding them away is a much healthier approach, as sweeping them under the rug can only build up more pressure. Hiding such emotions only pushes for the bubble to burst and create catastrophic, damaging results for both the addict and the people they love around them.
In addition, there is another destructive feeling to address in the wake of recovery: boredom. For many addicts, their drug or drinking habits were a form of entertainment. After letting this go and adopting repetitive routines to maintain recovery, addicts often begin to experience intense feelings of cluelessness and boredom that has the potential to lead into relapse.
Building and Repairing Relationships
It isn’t uncommon for an addiction to hurt and damage past and future relationships for an addict. When fighting an addiction, the addict may push people—new and familiar—away, or lash out at them physically or emotionally, as a defensive maneuver. After this happens, the victims of the addict’s actions may feel hurt and want to completely disassociate with them.
This can lead to further despair in the recovery process, but while building and repairing relationships may be difficult, it can be a crucial step in the process. Maintaining social networks that are founded upon love, friendship, support, and hope are an essential component.
Building new relationships can disperse the feelings of loneliness and helplessness that come with an addiction, and repairing older relationships can serve to be shining beacons of the hope that reaching recovery is a definite possibility.
The Relapse
When it comes to the addiction recovery process, relapse—a single word that can scare away the motivation in an addict—is seen as one of the biggest challenges of them all. But in order to overcome some of the biggest challenges of recovery, an addict must be willing to face not only the possibilities of a relapse but work towards preventing one.
You will find in therapy and rehab that you will be taught a number of routines and habits to try to prevent the occurrence of relapse. Rooting yourself in quality relationships—familial, friendship, and even among peers in the recovery process—is a way to strengthen your fortitude in maintaining sobriety.
Avoid and attack unhealthy habits, adopt new ones, rebuild your old relationships, and begin working on new ones amongst your peers.
If you or a loved one are struggling to maintain the recovery process, consider seeking a local Treatment & Rehab program in Tennessee. You may also look into Discovery Place’s own programs such as the 30 Day Residential Addiction Recovery Program or the Long Term Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Program in Burns, Tennessee. Call us today for a free consultation at 1-800-725-0922.
