Many of us feel that our work dominates our lives, and we struggle to find a balance between our work and our family obligations. We feel as though we never get to see our loved ones. We feel like we’re always on the go, and we have little to no time for self-care, relaxation, enjoyment and much needed down time. We aren’t able to commit time and energy to healing, to spiritual practice, or to personal development. We’re burning the candle at both ends, and eventually we reach dangerous levels of stress and exhaustion and can become burned out, leaving us completely unable to care for our many responsibilities. We see that our work, or our approach to it, is causing us tremendous imbalance in our lives, but we don’t know how to rectify that.
Many of us regularly turn to our addictions to escape the stresses of our jobs. We might keep alcohol in our desks at work or go to the restroom to get high. We might go straight from work to a nearby bar. We might pour ourselves a drink the minute we get home. We don’t feel able to cope with the demands of our jobs and the stresses of everyday life without our drug of choice to ease the overwhelming pressure we feel. Our addictions become a compulsive way of distracting ourselves and numbing our uneasiness, our restlessness and anxiety. Not only are we not coping with our stress in healthy ways, we’re worsening the work-life imbalance we’re already struggling with because all the time and energy we’re expending on our drug use could be going to healing, to finding better ways of managing our stress, and even to getting ahead at work so we can somewhat lighten our load.
We often feel powerless over our schedules and workloads, which adds considerably to our stress. We might not be able to change how much work we have, how many hours a day we have to spend at work, or how demanding our jobs are. We can, however, develop healthier coping skills to handle the stress of it all. We can find ways of managing our feelings that don’t involve the self-destructiveness and pain of our addictions. We can work with a therapist and attend support groups. We can meditate and get exercise. We can try to come up with more suitable work arrangements with our employers, such as working from home from time to time. We can take better advantage of our vacations and our paid time off, especially since we often are working so hard we never give ourselves a break. And we can make sure to prioritize our recovery, because the more we’ve healed from our addictions, the more we’re naturally able to handle the responsibilities of everyday life and to find the balance we need to be happy and feel at peace in our lives.
At The Guest House Ocala, we have personal recovery experience and over 12 years in the recovery industry. We have helped countless people recover, and we’re here to help you too. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.