Our stories with addiction are often riddled with denial, avoidance, emotional suppression, silence, and secrecy – the many coping mechanisms we develop to keep ourselves from having to face our addictions and do the work to get better. We refuse to see ourselves as addicts and our problems as being caused by addiction. We refuse to think we need help. We might go along this way for years of our lives, and for many of us, we lose our lives to addiction because we weren’t able to make the choice to get well. For those of us who do thankfully manage to recover, it started with that conscious, deliberate decision that our sobriety had to be our priority, and that we could no longer continue to self-destruct and essentially kill ourselves with our addictions.
The all-important choice to get well comes to each of us at different points along our journeys and for different reasons. We may have lost a loved one to addiction, and the grief we feel serves as a painful wake-up call that we’re on the exact same path, destined to meet the same fate if we don’t course-correct and choose differently. We may have experienced a traumatic event that caused us to hit rock bottom, making us unable to function and making it impossible to keep living the way we have been. We might have fallen into yet another recurring depression and finally decided that we deserve to be happy. We might have woken up one day and felt a strong intuitive urge that we didn’t want to waste any more of our time, our potential, our energy, and our lives on a drug or addictive behavior.
Rock Bottom Is Where You Stop Digging
When we make the choice to get well is when our recovery work begins, but at that crucial point, much of the work has already been done. We’ve crossed over the threshold of denial and avoidance that has been keeping us from seeing the truth. We’ve started the process of self-exploration and developed some of the self-awareness necessary to even be conscious that we have a problem. We’ve made the decision within ourselves to get sober, which is one of the hardest parts of the whole process. Upon making the choice to recover, we can feel encouraged by our growth, rather than daunted by all the work that’s yet to come. We can feel proud of ourselves for taking this important step, for even being open to self-discovery and self-improvement when many of us aren’t able to, and when we haven’t been able to for so long. We can use this choice as momentum for further progress, and as a motivating force to finally commit to ourselves and our sobriety.
Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery? Call The Guest House today! 855-483-7800.
tel:8554837800Making the Choice to Get Well