Addiction is a serious illness that affects the mind, body, and spirit. In addition to harming you it eventually harms those around you. Addiction stems from something deeper. It could be childhood traumas, stress induced, or something else. Digging deeper to get to the root of the problem in addition to medicated assisted treatment programs will speed up your recovery and promote lifelong results. Opioids such as prescription pain medications or opiates i.e. heroin can be extremely addictive and cause physical withdrawal symptoms. For this reason it’s important to not take this road alone. Get help from a specialized physician, reach out to friends and family, join a local group whether online or somewhere local.
Recovery from opiate addiction is a slow healing process. You have to be willing to put in the work but at the same time be kind to yourself. Understand that it’s not an easy process but knowing that you are stronger than the addiction and you can do it is key. Making certain lifestyle changes make a huge difference in achieving long term results. Discovering where your addiction comes from will give you a lot of answers on how to address it and what steps necessary to ensure that you have lifelong results. Start by revisiting, in your mind, what was taking place in your life when you began using. Reflect on what your childhood was like. Do your family members have a history of addiction? Most of us have a multitude of traumas that have occurred throughout our life and some of us never learned how to face those traumas and overcome them. We were taught that emotions are weak and should be hidden.
When we are unable to hide them we simply find other ways to drown them. Some people choose drowning them with physical fitness, work, meaningless sex partners, shopping, and some people turn to alcohol and/or drugs whether prescription or recreational. Addiction can show up in all shapes or sizes but the root cause is usually similar. Learning how to face these traumas takes asking yourself intense, deep questions. It takes really sitting with your traumas, your emotions. It takes accepting them as your mountain to climb. It takes releasing them and celebrating that climb. Releasing the emotions that no longer serve you opens the door for your recovery, for your transformation.
What triggers you to want to use? Is it an emotion that arises? Is it a memory? Is it the desire to be someone else? Then ask yourself why it is triggering you? What are you hoping to accomplish by subduing it? Why? Now sit with that, feel it coursing through you. Sometimes talking with someone helps you release them, or maybe you would benefit more with journaling or doing voice recordings. Sometimes we may even need to scream to the top of our lungs and punch a pillow! Whatever resonates with you, begin with that. Then a big step and easier said than done however its necessary and doable…. forgive yourself and others. That’s a huge step! It’s time to reclaim your life!
Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. These words remind us that there is an unseen realm in which our lives are being lived out. Though we cannot see this spiritual world, we must not doubt that this is where our real battles lie!