Throughout our struggles with addiction, many of us fall into patterns of trying to conceal our problem from as many people as possible. We might hide drugs in random parts of the house. We might stash bottles where we think no one will find them. We might keep entire parts of ourselves, our addictive behaviors and unhealthy relationships, a secret from the people in our lives. Why do we hide our addictions?
Sometimes we hide our addictive patterns from other people because we’re afraid of what they’ll think, or as is the case with many of us, because we already know what they’ll think – they’ll think we should stop what we’re doing and get help for our addictions. Many of us are resistant to stopping and to getting help because we’re not ready to do the hard work of recovery, of facing our pain, giving up our dependence on the drug we’ve grown so attached to, and going through the physical, mental and emotional withdrawal symptoms.
Many of us hide our addictions from other people because we’re still hiding them from ourselves. We haven’t confronted the truth about ourselves and how we’re using our addictions to avoid specific painful aspects of our lives. We’re not ready to face ourselves and what our addictions mean to us, what we’re using them to distract ourselves from, what it is we’re trying to escape and numb ourselves to. We’re afraid of living life without self-medicating ourselves. We would rather stay comfortably within our patterns of avoidance and denial.
We often will hide our addictions because we’re afraid of the judgment we assume will come along with exposing the truth. Many of us have already experienced being judged for our addictions. People have looked down on us, distanced themselves, and even removed us from their lives altogether. This judgment and the rejection that comes with it can be extremely painful. We feel so low, so inadequate, so unworthy and unloved. We’re avoiding having to feel these painful emotions all over again, so we hide our addictions as much as we can from the people in our lives. We’d like to think that our loved ones love us unconditionally, but we assume our addictions will be too much for them to overlook. We already feel so ashamed and embarrassed about our struggles with addiction. We don’t want other people’s judgments and low opinions of us to make us feel even worse about ourselves.
The Guest House is a welcoming and supportive recovery home where you will be met with open arms, wherever where you are on your journey, without judgment or expectation. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.