When it comes to recovering from a substance use disorder, addiction forgiveness is essential. It can take a lot for your family and friends to forgive you for what you’ve done while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, especially if there’s trauma or negative history involved. However, for many individuals, forgiving themselves can be the most difficult part of recovery.
When you’re in recovery, you’re forced to rework and rebuild your life without alcohol or drugs. You need to focus on your career, become financially stable, and mend your damaged relationships – including your relationship with yourself. You’ll have an easier time with sober living if you face yourself completely during detox and treatment.
Self-forgiveness is just one step, though a huge one. Recovery can be an ongoing and lifelong process, and you don’t need to go through recovery alone. Contact Midwest Detox Center online or call us at 833.647.0392. Our team can help you work through your addiction and make a bright future possible.
What’s the Connection Between Forgiveness and Addiction?
The addiction recovery mentality focuses on self-forgiveness because without it, falling into the same processes and situations that lead to substance use becomes easier. Treatment programs with helpful resources and productive therapies can help, but forgiving yourself for what you did can help you see addiction as something in your past.
Maintaining your sobriety is the end goal of addiction recovery, but stopping your substance use is not enough. When you forgive yourself, you’re also dealing with your feelings of guilt and regret. Self-forgiveness can keep you from living your life hiding behind shame and self-hatred, prevent possible relapses, and promote good mental health.
Forgiving yourself is part of the self-healing that you’ll need to do during recovery. It’s not unusual to want to hold on to past mistakes because you might feel like forgetting them will make you more prone to repeating harmful or hurtful behavior. However, when you torture yourself by doing this, you keep yourself stuck in a cycle.
Addiction forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean forgetting the damage that’s been done. It’s the perspective that’s game-changing. Don’t look at your past mistakes as negative or condemnable. Instead, think of them as experiences that taught you how to be a better person. As humans, mistakes can be part of our growth and can even help us connect with others.
How Can You Inspire Addiction Forgiveness in Yourself?
The addiction mentality can be so damaging, and it’s no wonder that self-forgiveness is a difficult part of recovery. But since forgiveness and addiction recovery go hand in hand, you can’t skip this step.
Here are some things you can try to make forgiving yourself easier:
- See a therapist: Most people in recovery start with talk therapy, if only because it’s often an integral part of addiction treatment programs. Guilt and shame stemming from addiction can make it hard for you to see your situation objectively. Having a mental health professional help you see yourself through emotions can help.
- Start journaling: If you don’t enjoy talk therapy, journaling can help. When you keep a journal during recovery, you can get strong emotions off your chest and on a page at any time. And with a journal, you get to keep track of your recovery and progress.
- Accept your past mistakes: This is the key to learning how to forgive yourself. You must accept that the past happened and that you did make mistakes that hurt you and others around you. But you should also remember that you’re a person in recovery and are no longer the same person you were in the past.
- Practice gratitude, self-compassion, and positive affirmations: Part of forgiving yourself is learning how to love yourself. Take the time to reflect and affirm what you like about yourself. Activities like exercise, yoga, and meditation can help with this process.
- Make amends with people you’ve hurt: When you focus on what you’ve done to other people, guilt and shame can be powerful feelings that halt your addiction recovery in its tracks. Reaching out to these people and directly addresses your past actions can help you let go of guilt and shame.
Learn More About Midwest Detox’s Addiction Recovery Programs
At Midwest Detox Center in Ohio, we help people overcome their addictions. If you or someone you care about is ready to take steps toward a healthier and happier life, contact us online or call us at 833.647.0392 today.
