When we’re fully immersed in our addictions and entrenched in our self-destructive patterns, we often think of recovery as simply quitting our drugs of choice and no longer giving in to the temptation they bring us. What we sometimes fail to realize is that self-control and willpower aren’t necessarily enough to get sober. We’re dealing with deeply rooted psychological and emotional issues we haven’t healed from. We know we have a strong dependence on an addictive substance or behavior, but we don’t always know where that dependence came from. We aren’t always aware of the crucial importance of looking at when and how our addictions began in the first place.
Emotional Contributing Factors and Patterns
Many of us don’t want to think about how our addictive patterns first emerged. We don’t want to admit to ourselves that we started using drugs or alcohol, or addictive behavior, to cope with overwhelming and debilitating emotion. We don’t even want to think about our emotions, let alone how they may have contributed to the development of our addictions. We’re inclined to suppress and resist our emotions, which means we’re often also resistant to looking at the emotional reasons why our addictions first developed in our lives. What emotions were you experiencing that first made you feel as though you needed an escape or means of coping? What emotional patterns first brought you to your drug of choice and contributed to your developing a dependence on them?
Our Relationships and The Introduction to Our Drugs of Choice
Sometimes we don’t want to look at the origins of our addictions because we don’t want to face the fact that someone we love first introduced us to our drug of choice. We want to believe this person loves and cares for us. Whether a friend, partner or family member, we want to feel assured that this person always had our best interests at heart. We don’t want to think about the harmful and devastating effects that their actions may have had on our lives. Many of us first experimented with drugs because of the pressure we felt from a loved one, who very likely was already struggling with an addiction of their own. It can be a painful truth to face to realize that someone close to us, even a parent, was the one that first started us down this very destructive path.
Looking at how our addictions began can be a difficult component of our recovery work, but it’s an important part of the healing process. In order to fully recover from our addictions, we want to address all the emotions, patterns, and relationships that have contributed to them over time, including the ones that first started them off.
Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery? Call The Guest House today! 855-823-5463.