The journey of addiction recovery is easily hindered by certain beliefs that we often hold onto.
These thought patterns can weigh heavily on someone who is trying to recover from addiction and may unnecessarily slow down their progress.
There is science to support the concept that thoughts have frequencies which affect matter. We are made up of matter and negative thoughts have low frequencies. Therefore, by having negative thoughts and self-talk, we negatively affect our physical make-up.
Simply put, the body believes and remembers what you tell it. Therefore, the more you tell yourself something, the more it evolves into the only truth you know.
However, the journey to recovery involves self-love and counselling which helps you break these negative thought patterns in order to learn new ones.
These new thoughts will be uplifting, loving, forgiving and kind – helping you break away from negativity so that you may once again believe in yourself and your abilities.
We have identified some of the most widely adopted negative beliefs and we discuss them in order to highlight how detrimental they are to your addiction recovery process.
The cycle of addiction can completely destroy our self-esteem which results in an unhealthy overall outlook on life. We don’t expect much, we believe we are not worth receiving anything positive and we believe that a better life is not possible.
Choosing the path of recovery is brave and simply by making that choice we are inviting the beautiful opportunity to live a happy, healthy and fulfilling life. Through addiction counselling and recovery, we learn to trust that there are wonderful things waiting for us along our new journey of life.
One of the strongest emotions any recovering addict feels is guilt and shame. This is often because our addictions are the driving force behind our behaviour which is not always something we are proud of. Shame and guilt tell us that we are not worthy of a better life because we have made bad choices in the past.
Forgiveness is key. When we learn to forgive ourselves the way we forgive others, we allow ourselves the grace of being a human being who is absolutely deserving of a better life. Being human makes us capable of making mistakes. However, these mistakes do not define us forever as long as we choose to make better choices going forward. The past no longer exists, the only thing that does is the present moment and our ability to grow from our experiences.
Using the excuse of “this is who I am” is actively handing over our responsibility to take action. This is excuse is consequent of a low self-esteem and the lack of belief in our ability to change. We develop these beliefs based on past attempts to fight addiction which may have failed as well as hearing others tell us that we will never or cannot change.
Setting goals in addiction recovery which are reasonable and reachable is a sure way to re-establish the faith in ourselves which we have lost. It is important for us to understand that the recovery process must be done by taking one step at a time. Furthermore, motivational self-talk will help us believe that we can instead of can’t.
Another strong pattern of behaviour in addiction is the act of using drugs or having a drink to reward ourselves. It is this reward system that perpetuates the cycle of addiction. The nature of this rewards system is negative and it teaches us to believe that without it, we cannot experience joy.
Through addiction recovery and counselling we learn that joy can be found in many places that are genuine and more beneficial than drugs and alcohol. Rewards can come in the form of a hot bath, a nice dinner, a weekend away, reading a good book or even taking a walk on the beach.
With addiction, often comes denial. This denial teaches us to believe that we have all the time in the world to quit and that we don’t have the energy to go through the recovery process now. Therefore, we procrastinate and postpone making the decision that will ultimately change our lives.
The longer we wait to make this decision, the harder it will be and this also makes time for something more serious to happen. With each day that passes, our addiction gains a stronger hold on us. There is no time like right now, and right now is the time to quit.
For more information about our counselling and rehabilitation programmes, please contact us.
Contact Us
Get the latest updates in your email box automatically.
Your nickname:
Email address:
Subscribe