Addiction can make us lose our self-confidence and self-worth. We get so caught up in our self-identification as hopeless drug addicts and alcoholics that we begin to play the role of the victim. Often time, the resulting depression causes us to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, leading us to fall deeper and deeper into our addiction. In early sobriety, we need to be aware of our tendency for self-pity in order to avoid it. Self-pitying can turn into a cycle; we feel bad about ourselves so we isolate, making us feel worse and so forth, until our unhappiness creates a very real danger of relapse. Instead, we make an effort to forgive ourselves for our past actions in addiction and be kind to ourselves. Positive affirmations are a tool we can utilize to boost our self confidence and avoid self-pitying behaviors in early sobriety. This can be as simple as saying “I love myself” or “I trust myself” every day. This boosts our sense of self-worth, which in turns improves our interactions with others. According to a 2014 Frontiers in Psychology study, “Helping the self help others: self-affirmation increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors”, participants who engaged in positive daily affirmations created increased feelings of compassion toward the self and other. Furthermore, these results “suggests that self-compassion may be a promising mechanism for self-affirmation effects, and that self-compassionate feelings can mobilize pro-social behaviors.” By maintaining a daily ritual that includes positive affirmations, we are not only helping boost our own sense of self-confidence and self-worth, but we are also increasing our ability to act with compassion toward others. This can effectively reverse the cycle of self-pity from one of depression and possible relapse, to one of love, tolerance, and compassionate action. When we begin feeling ourselves losing hope or our sense of self-worth, we need to remind ourselves that we are deserving of happiness, and as men and women in sobriety, we need to work on our internal condition if we wish to be of maximum service to others.
You have the power to change your story by seeking help now. When your story changes, your life changes. Oceanfront Recovery, a men’s treatment center in beautiful Laguna Beach, offers cutting-edge treatment methodologies and techniques to give you the best chance at a happy, joyous, and free life in sobriety. For more information about individualized treatment options, please call today: (877) 279-1777
