What Suffering from Addiction Really Teaches Us

Life is a series of lessons, and you never learn more about yourself than when suffering from addiction. It tears families apart, encourages dishonesty, and is the tipping point in many relationships. If you or a loved one has ever suffered from addiction and beaten it, you will realize how much has been accomplished.

But for those reading this who have a parent, adolescent, or another loved one going through this right now, it is the responsibility of the afflicted to ask for help, which is never an easy task. If this is you, asking for help is the first step on a long road, but you will learn so much about yourself. Here’s what you may learn on the other side.

Suffering from Addiction: It’s Difficult

Let’s start here, and it’s stating the obvious, but asking for help when you’re suffering is the hardest part of all. Take solace in the fact that in asking for help, you’ve done the hardest task. The whole journey to recovery means you will experience every single type of emotion, from anxiety to anger, to desperation, and so much more.

Giving up an addiction to a substance is breaking ties with something you have a dependence on, and that will never be easy. Yes, this is blatantly obvious, but it will be one of the most difficult things you will have to go through.

There is a Lot More Support than You Think

If someone is going through a hard time, it is incredibly isolating. You may avoid asking for help because you don’t feel there is a support network out there for you, but there is always help out there.

It’s a common feeling to think that you are burdening your loved ones by asking for help, but don’t forget that they want to help and they will help however they can. It doesn’t feel like it sometimes, but there is help out there.

Even in a professional capacity, from telephone helplines for people feeling mental health problems or AA meetings for those suffering from substance dependency, help is around the corner. It’s the asking for help that’s the task in this, and it’s something that is being pushed a lot more now than ever before because mental health issues or addictions are being spoken about much more than before.

You Can Change!

It’s naïve to think that you can change someone, but if that someone is yourself, it is most definitely possible. Change isn’t easy at all, but we’re all capable of second chances in life.

The process involved in recovering from an addiction and all the other issues that are symptomatic of addiction, such as mental health problems, is difficult. It’s all about holding the mirror up to yourself and starting to chip away at the flaws in your psyche. This happens in recovery, but when you know that you can change, you have unlocked something in your mind.

Once you know in your bones that you can change, it gives you the confidence to start laying the foundations for a whole new life. Change is a brave thing to do yourself because it requires you to pick apart everything you know about yourself.  

Facing Up to the Challenge

In giving up an addiction, you are consciously facing up to the challenge that you can beat the monster. There are many people who never have to give up anything in their lives, and will never feel the mental strain that comes with digging deep into your core to find resilience, self-worth, and courage to tackle a challenge of this magnitude head-on. We all have challenges in life, and it wouldn’t be life without these challenges. They make us who we are.

A lot is spoken of character-building, but taking on the task of giving up something will make you find out what you are capable of, which is a lot. And you will surprise yourself. Once you have accomplished one of the biggest challenges in your life, your life will never be the same. You are reinvigorated, and you’ll see everything differently.

You are always your own worst enemy, and you’ll look back and not even recognize that person you were. Such is the power of facing down the barrel of a gun in this way, that every fiber of your being changes.

Suffering from Addiction: Concluding Thoughts

We learn something new every day, they say, and learning to accomplish a mammoth task like overcoming addiction means you will learn more than one thing on your journey. You will experience highs and lows, but you will ultimately find out what you are capable of, which is a lot.  

 

Top photo via Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain.