Is Recovery Not What You Imagined it to Be?
You’re not alone. Giving up an addiction doesn’t mean that your life instantly gets better…
You thought when you stopped your addiction that your life would turn around. Maybe it did for a while. Yet, now you feel like life is just not working the way you want it to. You feel depressed, anxious and unhappy too much of the time. Your relationships haven’t been going well and work can also be difficult. You have struggled on your own and now you see the need to get some therapy.
If you are looking for a counsellor, you are likely in recovery from an addiction such as:
- Alcohol and mood altering drugs (i.e., cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, crystal meth, heroin, nicotine)
- Some prescription medications (i.e., tranquilizers, pain medications, sleeping pills)
- Excessive shopping (over-extending your credit, impulse buying)
- Disordered eating (bingeing, purging, restricting)
- Problem gambling (casinos, bingo, lotteries)
- Abusive or unhealthy relationships (focusing on others needs at the expense of your own, choosing unavailable partners)
The Constant Struggle to Avoid Relapse Can Be Exhausting
You may feel overwhelmed with fear or confusion and wonder if it’s worth the struggle to remain abstinent if this is as good as life gets. Perhaps you attend support meetings and scan the room wondering why everyone else seems to be happy except for you.
You may feel misunderstood and pressured by your family or friends who expect you to be “fixed”, especially now that you’ve achieved abstinence. The fact that you think you are not managing well only increases your feelings of shame and guilt. You think you now know better therefore you “should” be doing better.
If you are experiencing any of the following, addiction recovery counselling can help:
Lingering anxiety or depression- Persistent feelings of shame and guilt
- Unmanageable fears
- Confusion, difficulty making decisions
- Cravings for alcohol and/or drugs
- Obsessive thoughts about gambling, shopping or other compulsive behaviors
- Unresolved financial challenges
- Challenges in the workplace
- Unresolved health issues
- Feelings of powerlessness
- Unfulfilling or failed relationships
- Pattern of self-sabotaging behaviors
Counselling Can Make Addiction Recovery So Much Easier
If you are like many people who have given up an addiction, you might have been surprised - not to mention disappointed - to discover your primary problem was not the drugs, alcohol; gambling or other compulsive behavior. The substances or compulsive behaviors were a symptom of the core problems underlying their use. Therapy can help you heal these underlying issues whether they are due to physical or mental health issues; medical issues, relationship or work pressures, experiences of trauma or neglect, or a spiritual crisis.
Unresolved trauma due to difficult issues from the past can increase your risk for addiction relapse.
Recovery is About More Than Abstinence
Addiction recovery is also about looking within to discover what prevents you from living the life of your choosing.
A variety of factors influenced your addiction and compulsive behaviors; therefore it is important your recovery counselling or addiction treatment addresses all of these life areas to increase your ability for long term sustainable recovery. In counselling sessions we will examine how your beliefs and choices impact your ability to maintain physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual balance. We will identify and explore how you can strengthen your capacity to remain abstinent and create a more fulfilling life.
Counselling can help you improve and enrich the quality of your life.
Some of the benefits you could experience through recovery counselling are:
Increase self-esteem and confidence- Increase awareness of your relapse triggers
- Reduce or eliminate shame and unhealthy guilt
- Develop the ability to respond rather than react
- Feel more in control of your life and choices
- Eliminate the cycle of chaos
- Increase emotional stability
- Improve overall health
- Develop a sustainable relapse prevention plan
- Create healthier, more supportive relationships
- Improve employment satisfaction
- Increase creativity
As your recovery therapist, I can help you enhance the quality of your recovery.
With over 25 years’ working as an Addictions Counsellor in intensive outpatient and residential addiction treatment settings, as well as in my private therapy practice I have extensive training and experience counselling issues of grief and loss, spirituality, relationship violence, assertiveness and boundaries, and trauma and abuse issues. Together we can create a plan to address the best approach to achieve your identified goals.
Personally I have over 30 years abstinence from mood altering substances and enjoy a balanced, fulfilled life of my choosing. If I was able to change my life, so can you!