Learning to Be You; Its an Inside Job: Recovery and Healing for the Loved Ones of the Substance-Addi

No one but another addict/alcoholic or worker in the field knows how So honest , specific praise is very much appreciated and helps the healing. It's better to be specific and say, “I love the color green you put on that house. has been a credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor for more.
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Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Biotechnology Informational, WebMD, 1 April Business Insider, 3 August ABCNews, 3 August Razali, Asbah Binti, et. A Report Based on Prior Studies. Scientific Research Publishing, Not My Kid, Department of Health and Human Services, How to create a new life after drug addiction. About the Author Recent Articles. She is working on three large projects: How to create a new life after drug addiction was last modified: I wish for sober addicts to have relationships recovered with people that they have violated.

I wish for them to know unconditional forgiving love and sobriety for a long time to come. I wish for them to appreciate the hurt and pain endured and the yelling as a sincere sign of love from people who are around them. We don't yell at people we don't care about.

How to create a new life after drug addiction - The Recovery Village

We fight for those we love. So, when your family members get loud, frustrated, and scream at youstop running away and own the pain you've caused. Be glad that someone gives a damn about you to scream They say some must die for others to live. Don't always think you are smarter than others to inflict more pain upon yourself through your addiction. Know in your heart that you are stabbing the folks who love you when you relapse.

We, your family, love you and want you to know this deep in your hearts We may not always support your choices-even when they are good ones. We may not always appreciate your challenges We may not get it because we are not you. We many not understand your pain or your sickness. We may simply make a ton of mistakes in your mind trying to show you that we care. We may quit and cut you out of our lives We may become disillusioned with your painful lifestyle. We may do a thousand things that piss you offbut we do love you.

So, give us that much. I pray for everyone's recovery through it all. For those who are not addicts and who love one I pray for you as well. Either way; it's always a tough road up front. It does get easier in time and there are great support groups around to help you keep on staying well. It's a process and it takes time. It's time to work, feel productive and serve a purpose! It's time to play on the team of positives and not dwell on your weaknesses.

It's time to see the possibilities and to close the window to all the pain in the past instead of allowing it to keep climbing in your mind and taking control of your thoughts and giving it power through your addiction. Many folks believe that we are each responsible for our own destiny If someone is making a living off of the addition, then I place the responsibility for the addiction on the profit seeker, not on the addicted. One reason for your anger with your partner and your tendency to shame your partner is that you desire validation and appreciation for all you have suffered because of his substance abuse.

Unfortunately, you are not likely to get this kind of validation from your partner. First of all, he probably feels too defensive or too ashamed to give it to you. So it comes down to this: As well as being the most powerful way you can support your partner, compassion is also the most powerful tool you have for helping yourself as you take the role of supporter or collaborator. Self-compassion will help you to remain strong even in the most difficult of times. Most important, self-compassion will help motivate you to take care of yourself.

Kristin Neff, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, is the leading researcher in the growing field of self-compassion. If we are to be self-compassionate, we need to give ourselves the same five gifts we offer to another person toward whom we are feeling compassionate. In other words, we need to offer ourselves the recognition, validation, and support we would offer a loved one who is suffering.

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You may have lost friends and money, your career may have suffered or you may have even lost a job because you have been so devastated by his actions. Certainly your health has been affected since you have likely suffered both emotionally and physically. And it can also prevent you from being a compassionate collaborator for your partner. If you are a partner of someone who has a substance abuse problem you have suffered. And you deserve compassion for your suffering.

Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong

Unfortunately, other people may not be very forthcoming when it comes to offering you this compassion. And so the only compassion you may receive is the compassion you give yourself. A recent meta-analysis showed self-compassion to have a positive effect on depression, anxiety, and stress across twenty studies MacBeth and Gumley Gilbert and Procter suggest that self-compassion provides emotional resilience because it deactivates the threat system. Stopping to acknowledge your suffering with self-compassion is not the same as whining, experiencing self-pity, or feeling sorry for yourself.

When we are experiencing self-pity we tend to complain to ourselves and others about how bad a situation is and see ourselves as helpless to change it. There is often a bitter tone to our thoughts and feelings. Self-compassion comes from a more nurturing place inside us and can be comforting and validating. Self-compassion can lead to proactive behavior.

I often find this to be the case with people who are currently being either emotionally or physically abused.

How to create a new life after drug addiction

Once they acknowledge their suffering and allow themselves to feel and express their emotions because of it, they often feel more impetus to leave the relationship. Most of us were raised to just keep going in spite of difficulties.

Self-compassion encourages us to begin to treat ourselves and talk to ourselves with the same kindness, caring, and compassion we would show a good friend or a beloved child. Just as connecting with the suffering of others has been shown to comfort and heal, connecting with our own suffering will do the same. If you are able to feel compassion toward others, you can learn to feel it for yourself; the following exercise will show you how. This is the goal of self-compassion: In the following chapters we will offer you more in-depth self-compassion tools and strategies.

The more you work on releasing your stockpile of anger and the more you provide for yourself the compassion you so desperately need, the less you will need to bring things up from the past. And hopefully, the more you come to understand how damaging shaming a person can be, you will be less inclined to do so. The less inclined you will be to continually remind him of how much he has disappointed you, embarrassed you and hurt you and how he has ruined his life.

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On the other hand, the more you treat your partner with compassion, the less defensive he will become. Respect and optimism have proven to lower defenses and get you on the same side, working together against the problem. He will then feel this more compassionate attitude and whether he understands it or not—he will feel more accepted and loved. Having the compassion is also the best thing. Although it will make you the weak but that is not a big deal.

Having the controlled compassion will help you to control you information. This world will improve only thru pure love, n not punishments.

Transform your relationship with an addicted partner or family member.

Compassion is the beginning of it. Read out the below source to know the difference among pity, kindness, love, n compassion This is great and really informative.. I'll keep following your web and your article, thanks for sharing: Compassion coupled with accountability seems to be key to helping resolve addiction. It is a fine line with the abuse and boundary violations that seem to come hand in hand from an addict.

How difficult it is to keep reaching out to them when the lies, anger, and pain seem to be all that comes from them. But this is exactly what an addict needs. Too bad we have to keep taking time for ourselves to heal, recuperate so we can come back to helping otherwise we would have resolved this long ago. But at least we can come back. That is what matters. Noticing what we think leads us into noticing what we believe.

This allows us to listen to what is going on without any creation of false memories. Then we can feel the emotion powering this limiting belief. If you want to change your feelings you have to feel your feelings. Here is a short process that took me forever to figure out that guarantees change of any limiting belief we had programmed in to us. Sometimes this next step can be very touchy to people. I only mention it because it works.

The example I like to start with is that forgiveness cures anger. If someone is angry and they forgive them then their anger dissolves away. It is not repressed or denied. It is simply gone. It takes emotion to resolve emotion. This is the basis of gutap. And the best anger management there is around. And remember, forgiveness is not trust. Trust must be earned — forgiveness is only to free ourselves from being tied to them. False beliefs or negative programming simply has a couple of powerful negative emotions that keep the false concept controlling us.

Dissolve them and the false belief is completely diminished. When someone is angry they naturally direct their feeling of forgiveness into their feeling of anger. The two emotions must connect to be resolved. False beliefs though often have a couple of emotions that have to work together. Complicated but not impossible. Gutap — The three steps described: If you want to change your feelings you have to feel them.