Overcoming addiction can be challenging. You may experience a spectrum of feelings you have been suppressing with substances. As a result, you may turn to new unhealthy coping mechanisms. However, this can lead to replacing one addiction with another.
Becoming aware of your habits and deciding whether they are good for you is the first step in overcoming a replacement addiction. You can gain knowledge about a new addiction when breaking an old one to help you move towards healthy coping. Then, you can implement new routines to live a life without restrictions from the harmful habits you might have.
How a Current Addiction May Be Affecting Your Life
Addiction is a chronic disease that can be caused by various factors that involve your environment, genetics, mental health, and trauma. If you are navigating through life recovering from addiction, you may not know where to start. When you quit something, the body and mind typically want to substitute it for something else for fulfillment.
Becoming Aware of Your New Addiction
If you have already received treatment or are currently in treatment for addiction, you may end up substituting one bad habit for another. It is common to seek a replacement for one normal and create a new fixation on something else to distract you. This may not look bad at first.
However, over time you might create a new dependency and find new repetitive actions to partake in it for fulfillment. Any addiction can be harmful to you, and recognizing it and desiring change is common. With the right outlook and care, you can overcome replacement addictions to become the best version of your authentic self.
Understanding Gratification
Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s better. You may experience new feelings in your body or emotions in your mind, but dependence on anything outside of yourself to experience relief is likely to have negative results.
When you experience something you like, your body produces dopamine, and the brain associates the entity with pleasure. When you replace substance abuse with a new unhealthy coping mechanism, your mind can experience new levels of satisfaction. However, the same effect can occur to associate pleasure with the replacement. This leads to new addictions and ways of coping.
What You Might Be Lacking
When you have an addiction, it may be the root of something you are holding onto unknowingly. If you have dealt with trauma or lack of support from others, you may not recognize how it drives your behavior. Self-doubt and conflicting beliefs about yourself may be a driving force to look for things to make you feel better. This is very common.
However, you are capable of doing work within to discover what is holding you back from living a grounded lifestyle. You may have been lacking physical, emotional, and familial needs that you are unaware of. Your self-esteem may influence your choices to gratify an emotional need in your life. It is possible to detect these and redirect your course to create enjoyment for yourself without any external behaviors.
Knowing When to Forgive Yourself
You can’t be aware of something if you are too close to it. You don’t have to shame yourself once realizing you’ve picked up a new addiction in recovering from a separate one. Self-love is critical during this time because your best can be created daily.
Putting in the work and effort is one of the most important steps. The actions you take on the path to recovery can look different and may even be scary. It can be beneficial to you to look inward and know you are not a bad person. You can uplift yourself with the qualities that make you separate from the habit.
Next Steps in Overcoming Addiction
You can create a healthy routine that allows you to express yourself in healthy ways. It can be helpful to reach out to people who are sober and do activities that don’t involve substances.
Once you’ve developed a habit, it can be hard to relieve yourself of it if you do not look elsewhere. Looking within and becoming aware of the root of your addiction can help you understand what you are trying to run from. Once you determine where your addiction might stem from, you can better understand the tools you will need to gain to accomplish your recovery goals.
If you have picked up a new unhealthy habit to replace substance abuse, know that the necessary source of healing is already within you. You just have to find it first.
You can succeed in your path to recovery, even if you have picked up new habits as you’re working through healing your current addiction. It may look different for you to separate yourself from multiple things at once, which is why becoming aware of your emotional and mental health is necessary.
Having an initial place to stand firmly can be helpful for you. You might find benefits in grounding yourself in the present, and finding what feels best for you may not look the same as others’ journeys.
At Villa Oasis San Diego, we specialize in addiction treatment and know what it takes for you to free yourself from the binding thoughts and fears. You do not have to go through your addiction issues blindly. Support and guidance can show you how to leave behind all new and old addictions. Call (323) 739-8673 to learn how we can help you.
