When it comes to addressing addiction in drug addiction recovery, sometimes there is more to be addressed than just physical dependency on a drug. Many people think of addiction as simply the act or pattern of using substances, but there can be more to addiction than that. While it's necessary to address the drug aspect of addiction, there is often a host of other emotional and mental issues that can play into and even be the main drive for the habit.
In fact, the emotional aspect to addiction plays a huge role in the development and existence of an addiction. This is why physical detox and getting sober is often not enough to help people stay clean and they relapse back into addiction. To truly beat addiction, individuals must obtain emotional sobriety as well. If they do, they stand a much greater chance of staying clean and creating a more stable and fulfilling life.
Read on to find out how emotional sobriety actually can help you when it comes to recovery.
First we should address what emotional sobriety means. At the end of the day, it's a state where you can feel your emotions without being overwhelmed by them or feeling you want or need to turn to substances to numb, get away, or 'fix' your emotional pain. This may seem like a terrifying and even near-impossible thing to many people who continue to use drugs, alcohol, cutting, eating disorders and more to control their mental and emotional states.
While this may seem scary, achieving emotional sobriety is key if we want to truly recover from addiction. If you can learn how to react differently to extreme feelings you are having and manage your emotions without turning to drugs or alcohol, you greatly improve the chances that you will be able to stay sober and rebuild your life. At this point, you may have lost jobs, people close to you, damaged relationships, drained your finances, and left your life in a wreck. The only way to ensure that you're not going to do that again is to buckle down, do the work, and really go through some things and address the reasons why you use or your addiction is necessary in your life.
Some negative ways of dealing with feelings can include trying to push them down-- people try to block out the emotions that they are feeling. While this can provide a temporary sense of relief, the feelings are still there and they can often manifest in other ways. Even though your conscious mind is trying to avoid thinking about them, unfortunately the effects they have on you still exist to an extent and you may find yourself using your addiction to deal with them.
Other people in the throes of addiction may not know how to handle their emotions. In certain detox programs and recovery programs, you will likely find that they put a great deal of focus onto counseling, therapy, and emotional detox as well. In this way, many programs are key in helping people with addiction address their recovery.
When you can learn to process your emotional world and heal from it, you may find that you are able to heal your addiction instead of being dominated by it. When you have a better relationship with your mind, feelings, and thoughts, you have a better platform to operate from and a better chance of succeeding at sobriety. Thank you for reading, and good luck.
