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When we’re recovering from our addictions, our tendency is often to want to put our pasts behind us so that we can plan for the future and focus on our sobriety. We want to move forward and leave our pain in the past where it belongs. We feel inclined to suppress the emotions and experiences of our pasts, especially when they were traumatic. The problem with this kind of emotional patterning is that we don’t heal from the things we don’t examine. When we don’t allow ourselves to reflect on the pain of the past, it stays lodged within us, where it continues to hurt us as we move forward. Our childhood experiences are often some of our most traumatic and therefore difficult to reflect upon. We want to analyze these experiences so that we can fully heal from them. We don’t want to dwell on them or obsess about them. We don’t want to continue to perpetuate patterns of blame and condemnation, towards ourselves or others, but we do want to reflect on those experiences so that we can find true forgiveness, release, emotional detachment, and freedom.

Emotional Resistance to Pain

Many of us use our drugs of choice specifically to avoid thinking about our childhoods. We might have been abused by a caretaker. We might have been abandoned or neglected. We might have experienced trauma that was so destabilizing we turned to an addictive substance or behavior in order to cope. When we become dependent on our drugs of choice, patterns of emotional suppression often coincide with our dependence issues. We’re not thinking about our childhoods because we want to move past them and let go of the pain. We, therefore, aren’t addressing the root issues and underlying causes of our addictions.  

Desensitizing Ourselves to Our Trauma

Thinking about our childhood experiences can be painful, but the more we confront them head-on, the less overpowering and debilitating they become. We become desensitized to the pain once we really allow ourselves to feel it. When we process our painful experiences, they no longer have the power to control us. We find ourselves feeling stronger in our recovery work and in our commitment to our sobriety because the pain of our childhood experiences becomes far less triggering and overpowering for us when we finally face it.

The Guest House is a welcoming and supportive recovery home where you will be met with open arms, wherever you are on your journey, without judgment or expectation.

Call 855-823-5463 today for more information.