Telling your story to complete strangers is the daunting part of recovery. One person sharing their experience with another person, strength, and hope, is necessary for the longevity of your recovery. Allowing yourself to become vulnerable in a way that may seem ludicrous at first can become the very thing that gets you to stay.
Recovery started in the late 1930s with one person white-knuckling their addiction and deciding to reach out to another person whom they had never met before, who was also suffering from their addiction. They were both amazed at how much they understood each other without ever meeting one another and how much they helped each other once they ended their phone call.
This concept is how sharing with others began and continues to be the cornerstone of recovery. Sure, people in the meeting might be a little nosy about your share, but overall they just want to get to know you better so they can be of service to you. Everyone wants to hear you share because they want to use your story, and everyone else’s, to collectively benefit sobriety.
Your Share Brings Experience
The story you have to offer is your story, your truth. Offering up your experience gives examples to others of what not to do as well as what worked for you. You are letting your group know that you have already attempted something that did not work, and you can spare them the misery of trying it themselves by sharing your trials and tribulations. You are also being an example of what can happen in recovery if you keep going.
Your Share Brings Strength
You let others know that they can stay sober by following the design for living that recovery describes. Staying sober takes great strength to battle the nagging obsession that keeps trying to get you to drink and use. The more you stay on top of your recovery, the more your addiction will stay underneath.
Your Share Brings Hope
Knowing everything that you have been able to muster in your recovery lets others know that they can follow suit. Recovery is based on one telling another person how they were able to recover from drugs and alcohol. The process of sharing is the long lasting basis of recovery that gives withstanding hope.
By sharing in a general way about what it was like, what happened, and what it is like now, you will find that maybe you are helping yourself more than you could have imagined. You will find yourself lighter and more connected to the people inside and outside the rooms. Releasing your shame and guilt will turn it into your experience, strength, and hope that you will, in return, want to share with others.
At The Guest House Ocala, our recovery programs include many experiential modalities, including traditional therapy, conscious connected breathwork, equine therapy, somatic experiencing, art in healing, grief therapy, mindfulness, and other forms of therapy. Call (855) 372-1079 today for more information.