As recovering addicts, we’ve grown accustomed over the years to neglecting our own health and sacrificing our needs for the needs of others. We often have a very hard time focusing on ourselves, opting instead to focus on our relationships, including the toxic, unhealthy relationships that are keeping us from healing. We don’t make our sobriety a priority, even when our lives literally depend on it. Why do we prioritize other people over our own recovery?
Our addictions are fueled by our subconscious limiting beliefs, the beliefs we have stored that we often aren’t even conscious of. One of the most harmful limiting beliefs we tend to share in common is that we don’t deserve our own self-love and care. Because of our traumatic experiences, as well as our addictions, we’ve come to believe we’re unworthy. Many of us are grappling with severe inadequacy and inferiority complexes. We feel as though we’re not good enough. We fear we don’t measure up to other people. We feel we need relationships to complete us and make us worthy. We turn to our drugs of choice to distract us from ourselves and from the pain of our self-hatred. We get high to forget how much it hurts not to value ourselves.
We also use relationships to distract ourselves from our pain, and they can become addictive just like a substance can. We focus more on the relationship issues, and all the turmoil and toxicity, because it can be a welcome distraction from our inner conflict and from the ways in which we look down on ourselves and think so poorly of ourselves. We can find escape in a relationship, whether in the physical affection and love or in the arguments and issues we never seem to be able to resolve. Whether the relationship feels positive to us or not, whether or not it’s healthy for us, it can become the dominant focal point of our lives, and we make a habit of consistently prioritizing it over ourselves.
When struggling with addiction, we very often find ourselves in unhealthy relationships with other addicts. We share many of the same issues, one of which being we have a hard time taking care of ourselves because of the nature of our addictions and how destructive and debilitating they are. They become all-consuming. Our relationships can function in the same way. When we’re in them, they consume our entire focus and the majority of our energy. We have little energy left over for ourselves to commit to self-care and to learn how to love and nurture ourselves. Part of addiction recovery entails making the conscious choice to put ourselves first so that we can fully heal ourselves and make peace with ourselves.
At The Guest House Ocala, you will be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.