The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Addiction and Recovery

Our addictions are our fault

Our addictions are a complicated blend of our traumas, our fears, our biochemical makeup and our pain responses. Blaming ourselves for our addictions is simplistic and loses sight of all the multiple factors that can go into them. What would it mean to have more understanding and compassion for ourselves, rather than choosing to blame and judge ourselves?

We should be able to recover alone

We feel guilty for involving other people in our addictions and for bringing them down with our problems. Maybe we’ve gotten help before only to relapse and start using again. Maybe we’ve hurt everyone we love and have no one left who trusts us. Sometimes we are prideful and don’t want to admit we need help. Sometimes we feel so alone we think that no one cares or that no one can help even if they wanted to. The truth is we need other people, and we need community. It’s never too late to find people who care and who understand.

We should be able to quit with willpower.

After years of addiction, our addictive and compulsive behaviors are programmed into our bodies and psyches. We absorb the toxic energies and unresolved traumas of our families. Some believe we can inherit the issues, fears and patterns long established in our families, meaning our addictions go back even further than our lifetimes and really didn’t start with us. When we think we should be able to quit with willpower alone, we’re forgetting that our addictions are deeply ingrained in us and in our families, not to mention our communities, societies and cultures at large. We’re forgetting that there may be genetic factors at play. Our addictions have been developing within us for years, and we sometimes need more than willpower alone to recover.

If we haven’t quit yet, we’re weak and pathetic.

When we can take a step back and look at the bigger picture, we might find it easier to view addicts and addictions more objectively. Whatever the addiction, whatever the causes or reasons or behaviors, addicts are suffering. Addiction is suffering. You’re not weak and pathetic, you’re in pain. Your addiction happens to be your pain response. Many people are self-deprecating, self-sabotaging or masochistic in one way or another. Self-hatred is a common, if not universal, theme in human nature. Your addiction is your personal manifestation of that very human phenomenon. Could you begin to see yourself the way your higher power sees you- a being of light filled with potential and promise and possibility, temporarily caught in the cycles of addiction but powerful enough to set yourself free?

Recovery involves healing our self-image and the beliefs we hold about ourselves. Let Enlightened Solutions help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.