incredible-marketing Arrow
What Are We Afraid of When We Relapse?

When we relapse and default on our sobriety, we feel a variety of emotions, one of the most painful among them being fear. We can feel consumed by fear that can manifest as worry, self-doubt, uncertainty, anxiety, and even panic attacks. Sometimes we don’t associate our anxiety, depression and other mental health issues with being manifestations of our fear, but when we look more closely, we see that fear is actually fueling many of our mental and emotional difficulties, including our addictive patterns and our tendency to relapse. What are we afraid of when we relapse?

Sometimes relapse feels catastrophic to us. We’ve been working so hard on our sobriety, setting goals and intentions for ourselves, making promises and commitments both to ourselves and our loved ones, doing a lot of the healing work we may have been putting off for years. When we feel the mounting pressure from all of the expectations we’re placing on ourselves, we can feel extremely afraid of failure. We’re afraid of disappointing our loved ones, being judged by them, and letting them down. Once we relapse, we’re afraid that we’re not actually strong enough to get sober. We fear we’ll never be able to quit, that we’ll always be controlled and overpowered by our addictions, and that we’ll always be suffering in this way. We lose faith in ourselves, and we’re afraid to believe in ourselves lest we be disappointed all over again. We give up on ourselves. We lose hope. We’re afraid there’s no light for us at the end of the tunnel, no way out, no recourse against these addictions that are so much stronger and more powerful than we are. We’re afraid there’s no use in continuing to try to get clean if we’re only going to keep relapsing. We’re afraid we’ve been wasting our time and energy. We’re afraid we’re hopeless addicts with nowhere to turn. We don’t know what action or direction to take, and our fear, our confusion, sadness and overwhelm can be so debilitating that we become paralyzed into not doing anything at all. Sometimes our fear fuels our inaction which, accompanied by denial and secrecy, can often compound and exacerbate our addictive patterns. Out of fear, we often will try to avoid thinking about the problem altogether, we might get defensive about our addictions, and we may want to distract ourselves from the painful fears we’re feeling, all of which can cause us to return to our addictions for comfort and escape.

Exploring our fears helps us to learn ourselves more, and the more connected we feel to ourselves, the better our chances of healing ourselves and achieving sobriety.

Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery? Call The Guest House today! 855-483-7800.