drug treatment center

The Attitude of Sobriety

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Sobriety | LakehouseRecoveryCenter.com

According to an online dictionary, an attitude is “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior”. The attitude we have towards ourselves and our recovery is essential. It can support our path to sobriety or it can derail us.

For instance, according to the book Pathways to Recovery, two important attitudes to have regarding your desire to change is hope and courage. Both hope and courage can bring positive feelings to recovery and nourish the need to change. Hope is the feeling of having an expectation that an event will take place or that something will change. It can be a small glimmer of light in the midst of feeling depressed or trapped by life. Alongside hope, courage can provide the bravado and bravery to take the steps you once thought was not possible.

It’s common for a person to feel the need to escape from everything when he or she feels depressed, trapped, helpless, or hopeless. Certainly, these heavy feelings can contribute to regular drinking, which is how a dependency upon drugs or alcohol as well as an addiction can slowly begin. Not understanding how to face the magnitude of life’s challenges and not having the tools to cope with such debilitating emotions can make turning to drinking and drug use easy to do.

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The Power Behind Making A Commitment

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Commitment | LakehouseRecoveryCenter.com

When you’re not committed to something, it’s not your first priority. It’s something you may think about from time to time, but it’s not your driving force. Whatever it is – it’s not your primary motivation that gets you out of the bed in the morning.

Commitment is something that drives you, pulls you, and moves you. According to an online dictionary, commitment is the state or quality of being in which you are dedicated to a cause. You might feel as though you have a responsibility, obligation, or even an allegiance to something.

Of course, if you’re a recovering addict, you might decide to make a commitment to your recovery. Yet, there’s an underlying message that this communicates. When you are committed to your recovery, you are essentially committed to yourself. For some recovering addicts, this can be difficult. Making yourself your primary responsibility might be hard. Taking good care of yourself may feel like a challenge. Knowing what to do to keep your life stable might feel difficult.

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Drug Treatment and the ABC’s of Change

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You’re likely in drug treatment, or considering it, because you want to change your life. Perhaps you already know that the change you want to achieve isn’t only going to require ending your substance use, but it’s also going to mean changing your (A) attitudes, (B) behavior, and (C) cognition (thinking). These are known as the ABC’s of change because …

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Life After Drug Treatment: Getting Unstuck While Staying Sober

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Drug Treatment | LakehouseRecoveryCenter.comMany people on the path of getting sober and who have even been sober for a while might easily get stuck in a pattern, a comfort zone that keeps life revolving in the same old circles.

For instance, maybe you’ve been sober for a year. Your life has reached a healthy, stable, and sober level. And this is good!  You wake up, eat your breakfast, go to an AA meeting or support group, go to work, come home, have dinner, go to another sober living meeting, come home, and go to bed. The next day you start the whole routine all over again.  It’s wonderful that you’re sober and it’s a comfortable life, and it’s certainly miles ahead of where you were when you were using.

However, you might at some point want more. Besides, you didn’t get sober just to get sober; you got sober so that you could find a loving relationship again, so that you can achieve some of your dreams, and so that you could have money in the bank whereas for most of your life as an addict you didn’t.

Struggles With Addiction

On the whole, those who struggle with addiction, whether they’re sober now or not, are typically passionate, fervent, and fiery people. They have a fire inside that needs to be expressed and shared. They have passion and an enthusiasm for life.

Previously, while still using, some addicts might have experienced that passion through promiscuity, risky behavior, or wild nights out on the town.

That high level of passion and energy might have come out through a quick sense of humor or a tendency to flirt. But where did all that fire go?

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