12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Your RECOVERY
Avoiding Relapse through Self - Awareness And Right Action
Stupid Thing 1: Believing addiction to one substance is the only problem.
Stupid Thing 2: Believing sobriety will fix everything. Recovery begins with breaking the bonds of addiction. But this is only the first step on a long journey. Recovery is ultimately about recovering our spiritual, or true, self.
Stupid Thing 3: Pursuing recovery with less energy than pursuing addiction. We have to pursue recovery wit h the same tenacity and enthusiasm that we had when we were drinking or using other drugs.
Stupid Thing 4:Being selectively honest. Recovery requires rigorous honesty. Nothing less will work. We are as sick as we are secretive. Recovery is like a salvage operation…we are recovering our lost self.
Stupid Thing 5: Feeling special and unique. Humility is the spiritual foundation of recovery. In order to feel worthy, we do not need to be unique. People who do best in recovery are those who surrender and follow suggestions.
Stupid Thing 6: Not making amends. To develop a strong spiritual foundation for recovery, it is essential that we accept full responsibility for our harmful and hurtful behavior and that we attempt to repair the damage that we have ca used in our relationships with family, friends and loved ones.
Stupid Thing 7: Using the Program to try to become perfect. Most of our life has been spent trying to be perfect. This has been a fruitless goal. Instead we need to learn how to become more human.
Stupid Thing 8: Confusing Self - Concern with Selfishness. Self - concern is different from selfishness. It does not exclude others; it is inclusive. Part of our self is concerned with cooperating with and pleasing others. These desires are natural and healthy, when they are balanced with personal integrity.
Stupid Thing 9: Playing futile self-improvement games. Recovery requires honesty. Playing games with ourselves is dishonest and doesn’t address our problems. It is instead a sophisticated strategy to avoid dealing with our problems. Avoidance is ultimately destructive to the process of recovery.
Stupid Thing 10: Not getting help for relationship troubles. Dysfunctional relationships are one of the top three causes of relapse.
Stupid Thing 11: Believing that life should be easy. Life is difficult. The sooner we are initiated into this reality, the sooner we learn how to deal with life on its terms rather than waste our time looking for the easy way.
Stupid Thing 12: Using the Program to handle everything. Recognizing our need for additional help is an indication that we are working a good program.
PEACE
Ernie R.