Many of us struggling with addiction live in denial and secrecy about the lives we lead. When we deny our addictions, it’s often because we’re afraid to admit we have a problem. We worry about what people will think of us. We fear their judgment and criticism. We fear they will reject us. When we deny being addicts, it’s also often because we’re not quite ready to commit to recovery. We might be afraid to take on the challenges of recovery work. We might be afraid we’ll fail, so we stop ourselves from trying. Being in denial about our addictions is not only denying that we have a problem, but it’s also denying who we are. Our denial of our addictions is an inability to come to terms with the fact that we’re addicts.
Internalized Misconceptions
We deny being addicts and are hesitant to self-identify as such because we’ve been conditioned to believe that addiction makes us shameful, immoral, bad people. We’ve been told we wouldn’t be addicts if we weren’t so lazy, weak, and unmotivated. We come to believe these misconceptions, and we internalize them to be the truth of who we are. We don’t see our addictions as spiritual tests of our strength. We don’t see them as challenges to empower ourselves. We see addiction simply as a source of shame, something we want to avoid associating ourselves with.
Blocking Our Healing
The more we deny who we are, the harder it is to heal. Whatever we don’t address within us continues to plague us. The emotions we avoid facing continue to overpower us. Our coping mechanisms continue to control us. The reasons behind why our addictions manifested in the first place can’t be resolved if we don’t ever address them. When we don’t want to admit we’re addicts, we hold ourselves back from being able to take the necessary steps forward to recover.
Self-Acceptance and Self-Love
Admitting our addictions means coming to terms with the whole truth of who we are, and being confident, self-accepting, and self-loving. It means embracing all of our parts, not just the ones that are socially acceptable, but also the parts that might have made us uncomfortable or brought us shame. When we move through those feelings of discomfort, shame, and denial, we become empowered to love ourselves unconditionally, and self-love is perhaps the most important element in recovering successfully from our addictions.
Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery?
Call The Guest House today! 855-823-5463.