When we are struggling with addictions, it’s not uncommon for us to give up on ourselves. We lose faith in ourselves. We don’t have hope and don’t feel optimistic about our futures or our chances for recovery. When we give up on ourselves, we tend to give up responsibility for our lives. We can sometimes wish someone would come and rescue us. We want to be saved. We are afraid of the hard work we know it will take to get better. We don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices. We’re not ready to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. We’ve become complacent in our patterns, even though we know they are hurting us. Our self-destructiveness and our fears can keep us from taking responsibility for our lives. We can reverse these patterns by changing our perspective on responsibility and what it means in our lives. We tend to associate responsibility with stress and pressure. When we think of it, it makes us feel anxious. It’s a very heavy-feeling concept. When we’re struggling with addiction and mental health issues, even our regular day-to-day routines and obligations can feel daunting and overwhelming. Let’s think of our responsibilities – our families, homes, jobs, the responsibility of having to take care of ourselves and take our recovery seriously. What if we changed our associations with responsibility to reflect how grateful and blessed we are to actually have these things to be responsible for? We’re blessed to have the chance to recover and live fulfilling lives. We’re blessed to have family and friends to love, homes to live in, and jobs to help us support ourselves. Our obligations might be challenging, but aren’t we blessed just to have them to care about? When we adopt a perspective of gratitude, we no longer feel like we have to be responsible for these things in our lives, we realize we get to, we’re blessed to. Responsibility can be scary, but when we approach it with the perspective of helping one another, cooperating and coexisting, moving through life together, suddenly it’s not so scary because we realize we’re not alone in our responsibilities. There are people who want to help us and help ease our burdens, just as we are often there for other people. When we can think of life as a communal thing, we can approach our challenges together. We can enjoy the community and comradery with other people and allow ourselves to be supported in life. In this way, taking responsibility for our lives doesn’t have to be so scary and overwhelming. We can lean on other people, and as we get stronger in recovery, we can be there for others when they need us.
Our treatment programs include occupational therapy, which helps you to develop life skills and coping mechanisms to help you in your recovery. Call 1-888-986-7848.
