As we learn more about ourselves and our addictions, we come to discover more about our motivations for using, the reasons why we’ve become dependent on our drugs of choice, and what purpose we’re trying to fulfill by using. For many of us, one of our greatest motivations is our lack of inner peace. We drink and use to try and find peace of mind. We use to drown out the voices we hear and the delusions we experience, both of which are often symptoms of the serious mental health issues we’re avoiding dealing with. We use to self-medicate from our anxiety, depression, panic, suicidal thoughts, and other troubling mental and emotional challenges. We use to quiet the voices of our inner demons, the manifestations of our fears and insecurities that we feel haunted and consumed by. Sometimes our drugs of choice minimize our flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia and other recurring issues, many of which can overpower us and wreak havoc on our lives when we’re not using. We use to stop the mental torture of obsessive thinking. We’re desperate for anything that can quiet our overactive minds and slow our racing thoughts. We use to escape the pain of our pasts, the memories we don’t want to look at, and the wounds we’re afraid to confront. We use to distract ourselves from our traumatic experiences. We have so much healing work to do to achieve true happiness and inner peace, but we’re afraid to do the work, and we’re afraid to really confront ourselves, so we rely on our drugs of choice instead to comfort us and give us a false sense of tranquility.
We’re numbing ourselves from our pain rather than healing it
When we drink or use in order to gain inner peace, we’re pushing ourselves further and further away from being able to attain it. We’re creating the illusion of happiness, stability, and groundedness rather than actually doing the work to figure out how to create them for ourselves in our daily lives. We’re not developing ourselves, learning about ourselves, or working towards growth. We’re simply escaping, giving ourselves a temporary fix to the long-term problems that will always inevitably return until we address them.
It’s natural to want inner peace and to feel desperate to achieve it. We’ve been suffering from mental health issues, addictive patterns, and very troubling issues for so long. It’s understandable that we would want relief from our mental and emotional pain. Our drugs of choice aren’t the solution, though, and when we’re striving for inner peace, our addictions take us further from our goal, making it that much harder for us to genuinely be at peace within ourselves.
At The Guest House Ocala, our experience with addiction and recovery makes us uniquely poised to be able to understand the struggles you’re experiencing. We’re here to help. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.