When we struggle with addiction, we associate our addiction with a dependence on a particular substance or behavior. What we sometimes come to discover is that we’re not only addicted to our drug of choice and the patterns we’ve developed over the years, we’ve also come to be addicted to the drama of it all, the emotional turbulence of our stories, the conflict and turmoil. We don’t always associate our addictions with these kinds of emotional layers and complications, but when we look at them more closely, we learn that our addictions have been feeding other emotional needs of ours that we perhaps weren’t even aware of.
Roller-Coaster Ride of Addiction
Life with our addictions can be stimulating, exhilarating, exciting even. We’re dealing with immense inner turmoil and relationship conflicts. We experience the dramatic highs and lows of needing our drug of choice and then satisfying that need. We feel the roller-coaster ride of getting high and then coming down from our high. Our daily lives are adrenaline-charged, nerve-wracking and intense. We can get addicted to these feelings because they can bring us passion. We delight in them. They feel so much better than the silence we have to contend with without them. They occupy our time and take us away from the painful thoughts and feelings we’re trying so hard to avoid.
Self-Avoidance
Without our drug of choice, life can feel boring and dull, especially at first. This is perhaps one of the strongest triggers for relapse. We don’t know what to do with ourselves and all of our extra time and energy. We feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Life feels too quiet, and we’re afraid to face ourselves, our inner demons, our painful pasts and our self-deprecation. We’ve been using our drugs of choice to fill that silence we’re so afraid of. Our addictions have become our means of distracting ourselves from ourselves and our mental and emotional pain. They’ve been occupying our minds and creating these interesting albeit painful stories for us to immerse ourselves in. They’ve been our source of entertainment and emotional fulfillment. Without them, we can feel empty, alone, lost and overwhelmed. We can feel listless, restless and uneasy, because we don’t know what to do with ourselves once the drama is gone.
As we’re working to recover, it’s so important that we create new sources of joy and satisfaction for ourselves, with things that are healthy and genuinely fulfilling, that don’t create endless sagas of drama and conflict for us.
At The Guest House Ocala, you will be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488