In your recovery journey, it is crucial to recognize that you are not alone. While in treatment, it can feel this way as you are isolated and, at most times, by yourself. However, this isolation from the past people, places, and things you were surrounded by in your addiction may be necessary.
A change in you calls for a change in your environment. Although you may feel alone in treatment, you are not alone but with other isolated individuals who can relate to that same feeling. For this reason, Villa Oasis focuses on the importance of feedback from peers in treatment.
Treatment platforms such as group therapy start the necessary conversations evoked by being around others that share your experiences. In these settings, you will learn how having different perspectives cultivates an atmosphere that allows for vulnerability, forgiveness, and community.
Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
While treatment supports setting new boundaries, a person with a substance use disorder (SUD) must also learn to leave their comfort zone. This is essential because the comfort in discomfort made staying in addiction easier than getting out of it.
Not everything about being in your addiction was comfortable. Honestly, a lot of it was not. However, that was a discomfort you were willing to nestle into because it was so familiar.
Now is the time to nestle into a more positive discomfort. Being away from life as you once knew it and accepting this new normal will soon start to feel just right. You will no longer feel lost, alone, or out of place. At a point, you will start to notice that there are people in proximity who are just like you. There won’t be this feeling of being lost in the crowd when you are with them.
Talking about your addiction isn’t something that you often did before. This is because talking about it would have meant acknowledging it as a problem. It would have meant addressing the issue that birthed and led to the substance abuse issue. These are new conversations that you’re challenging yourself to have. However, having these conversations with others in the same boat offers a sense of normalcy and comfort to the equation.
The Art of Sharing in Treatment Is Therapeutic
Group therapy is a powerful therapeutic tool for those who are in treatment for SUDs. The art of sharing is that it can be highly therapeutic. Especially sharing perspectives in diverse settings.
Talking about your feelings is something that you have likely not done in a long time. However, there is an airy sense of relief that takes place when you do. Your thoughts and feelings can weigh you down. Offering them up instead of trying to repress them can uproot a lot of damage that has been done over time.
Maybe you were taught as a child to hold your feelings in or not to cry. Or maybe when you did, it was not met with love or understanding. These feelings and teachings can often be the root of your addiction. Imagine the work that is being done when you get honest with yourself enough to share that honesty with others. There’s healing in the truth of your trauma.
Everybody Has a Story
Everyone has a story, and everyone’s story is different. This is why it is important to share when given the opportunity to do so in treatment. You never know how your story may impact the life of another. You may also find yourself impacted by someone and build deep connections that you did not see coming.
Even someone who has a completely different type of SUD can be relatable. The simple fact that you both are on a journey to living a whole and free life makes you more alike than you may think.
Sometimes it is easy to get hung up on what someone may look like or how they act. Regardless of these characteristics, you both share powerlessness over a substance that has controlled and tried to take over your life completely. Tapping into that reality can offer a different insight into your personal journey.
The Power of Sharing in Treatment
Although everyone coming into treatment may not look, act, or sound the same, you are all seeking a second chance at life. People, by nature, are social beings and require a level of reliability. Don’t avoid and run from the opportunity to share what brought you into the seat or the chair in the room that you sit in in treatment. Take the floor, share your story, and take back your power.
There’s a strength that comes from acknowledging the turbulence of the storm that you have survived. Be that strength for you and for your fellow peers seeking true joy, peace, and change in your lives.
Seeking treatment is a challenge that not everyone will take. When you understand the need to be brutally honest with yourself to get sober, you tap into the power to change your life. The road to recovery can be lonely, but you are not as alone as you may feel. Having others who are also on their personal journey can offer the necessary change of perspective that you need to heal. Your humility can be life-changing for someone else. If you are considering a treatment platform where you can open up and share, Villa Oasis San Diego can help you. Call us today at (323) 739-8673 to understand how opening up can be beneficial to your treatment experience.
