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If you keep on relapsing back to addiction, it means you must be doing something wrong. This is not to say that you are a bad person or that you are a hopeless case – it just means that there is something about your approach that is not working for you. Below are seven possible reasons why you might keep relapsing back to addiction.
1. You Have Been Ambivalent Towards Recovery
If you are ambivalent towards recovery, it means that you are not fully committed. The usual cause for ambivalence is that you have not completely let go of the idea that you will be able to drink or use drugs again in the future. If you are anything less than 100 per cent committed to this new life, it will be difficult for you to make much progress.
2. You Have Been Using the Wrong Recovery Resources
The reason there are so many different approaches to recovery is that not one path works for everyone. Even if you find a treatment option that has worked for millions of other people, it does not necessarily mean it will work for you. The trick here is to carefully consider your needs and personality and to find the approach that best fits in with this. If you keep on failing at the same approach to recovery, it might be time to try something else.
3. You Have Not Accessed Enough Recovery Resources
If you keep on drinking despite your belief that you can go it alone, it could indicate that you are deluding yourself. It is sometimes claimed that insanity is described as repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting different results each time. One of the most common reasons why people fail to break away from addiction is they have failed to get enough help; this happens because addictive thinking means the person remains convinced they don’t need any help.
4. The Only Thing You Have Done Is To Stop Drinking
It is often stated that recovery is a process and not an event. Giving up alcohol or drugs it the important first step of this process, but it is not enough to ensure long-term sobriety. The reality is that all that happens when you stop drinking is you go back to how things were right before you fell into addiction. Unless you make some serious changes to your life, you are likely to make the same or similar mistakes again.
5. You Haven’t Changed Your Social Network
It has long been claimed that humans become the average of the five people they spend most of their time with. This means that if you spend most of your time with substance abusers, it will be very difficult for you to develop a different way of living. It is therefore vital that you begin making sober friends and surround yourself with the type of people you want to be like. Try to keep away from your old drinking and drug buddies as much as possible; they are unlikely to support your new way of life and they may even actively try to sabotage you.
6. You Haven’t Taken Full Responsibility for Your Recovery
The only person who will be able to fix your life is you. It is important to make use of the available recovery resources and you may need a stint in rehab, but it is still going to be you doing all the work. If you are expecting other people to come and fix you, it means you have developed a condition known as learned helplessness; you need to overcome this to progress in recovery.
7. You Have Fallen Into the Trap of Stinking Thinking
For you to develop the motivation of achieving long-term recovery, you need to cultivate a positive outlook on life. The opposite of this helpful mindset is stinking thinking where you are full of negativity. In order to have the best chance of achieving long-term sobriety, you need to let go of cynicism, resentment, pessimism, and other types of negativity. Stinking thinking is toxic for people in recovery, so you need to avoid it as best you can.
