Rediscovering Yourself after Alcohol Addiction

Living with addiction comes with a complex swirl of emotions. Many people describe recovery as being akin to the stages of grief. This suggests that tackling the physical dependency on alcohol is only one side of things. To get to the other side, it is necessary to reflect on the psychological elements of alcohol abuse. Addiction is often initially driven by difficult feelings. Unfortunately, though, alcohol has the power to worsen these emotions, rather than cure them.

Alcohol addiction recovery is a rocky road and naturally includes lots of bumps. It is not all negative, however. Starting your rehab journey can provide a catalyst for positive change. It can open the door for a period of life-altering growth, leading to reflection and rediscovery. Embracing this opportunity can give us a unique vantage point and new perspective. This can help us to move forward with confidence.

Life without alcohol

The shift from using alcohol as a crutch to living without it completely can feel huge. The early stages of accepting that we need help are perhaps the first phases in a tough journey. Following this, detoxing from alcohol can challenge both our bodies and our minds.

One research team concluded that grieving and recovery can be very similar experiences, explaining that ‘ending an addiction is complicated by being a sort of mourning process.’

This can be really tough to experience. From an outside perspective, it may seem that ‘ending’ an addiction can only be a positive thing – it signals progress and a newfound sense of health and control. However, for people living in this situation, the change can be overwhelming. Whilst leaving addiction behind can only benefit us in the long term, it makes sense to find the shift difficult.

Dealing with emotions

When we stop using alcohol, we can find that the feelings that have been somewhat numb start to creep back. For some people, this can cause them to panic, as they may feel afraid that the feelings could become too much, leading to a relapse. But part of the alcohol recovery process is developing positive ways to live with these emotions. We need to find healthy ways to coincide with our feelings rather than identifying methods of avoidance, such as drinking.

Engaging with therapy and social support is a great way of managing these difficult feelings in the early stages of recovery. This can provide you with space to address your emotions, as well as workshop potential approaches to managing them.

Sudden realisations

When we are in the thick of a situation, it can be difficult to see the full picture. During recovery we ultimately regain perspective. This can sometimes lead us to unpleasant realisations – either about our past experiences, or about the effect of our own actions.

Alcoholics Anonymous encourages people in recovery to be honest and reflect. They suggest that to recover from alcohol addiction, we should make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.’ After this, we can start to make ‘direct amends to such people where possible.’ This can help us to address these difficult realisations and take positive action if necessary and appropriate.

On the other hand, we may have realisations that we have been wronged or hurt in the past. This can allow us to build boundaries and make changes to protect ourselves in the future.

Social changes

Another key difficulty in the recovery stage is social changes. For a high number of people struggling with alcohol addiction, drinking is a strong component of their social life. An issue that can arise here is that your previous ways of spending time with people can become incompatible with your recovery.

This can lead to two possible situations:

1. Engaging in these contexts but feeling uncomfortable
2. Social withdrawal as a form of avoidance

This can require you to make some changes to ensure you are safeguarding your recovery whilst also maintaining a social life.

Rebuilding your identity after addiction

Addiction can really rock your life. After the above shifts take place in recovery, some people do find themselves feeling a bit lost. To combat this, it can be beneficial to think about how you can use this period as a fresh start, nurture your confidence, rebuild your identity, and take positive action going forward.

 

Establish your core values

Therapists indicate that people who live a life that is aligned with their ‘core values’ are often happier than those who don’t. To live an aligned life, we need to identify what values are most important to us.

Example values include:

• Family
• Education
• Health
• Creativity
• Compassion

Once you have identified your key values, you can make a list of ways you can work towards living a life that incorporates what matters most to you. This is known to boost mood and overall satisfaction.

Engage with hobbies and interests

Life throws a lot of difficult things at us. One way to help us to stay afloat is to integrate elements of fun into our routines. Engaging with our hobbies reduces stress, improves health and boosts wellbeing. It can also help us when we are starting to reestablish a clear sense of self.

Integrate positive socialisation

One predictor of relapse is loneliness. To safeguard against this, remember to take the necessary steps to build and maintain a healthy support system. This includes showing up for your loved ones as well as them showing up for you. Nurturing these spaces of mutual support is a potent reminder of our importance and significance to those in our lives.

Reflect on your progress

We can often take progress for granted. Being mindful of how far we’ve come can help motivate us to stay on track. Logging our successes is a way of holding ourselves accountable, but it’s also a way of celebrating ourselves. Practising gratitude and acknowledging things we should be proud of is a strong deterrent against depression. It can help us feel accomplished and more able to tackle the difficult moments.

Engage in active recovery

Recovery is a contentious concept. This is because it isn’t linear. We can’t always directly pinpoint where recovery starts or ends. It’s a lot more complicated than that. This is why clinicians working in alcohol addiction treatment like to use the term ‘active recovery.’  [8]

Active recovery is the idea of consciously working to progress our relationship with alcohol, our mental health, and ourselves. This contrasts passive recovery, when progress becomes more of a background endeavour. Active recovery suggests that the choice to get and remain sober is an active and continuous one.

For many people, staying in contact with support groups can be a great way of maintaining active recovery. It helps us to continue important conversations and nourish healthy peer relationships.

Start your journey today

Alcohol addiction is a tough reality to face, but you do not have to do so alone. From outpatient programmes to supported detoxes and residential care, treatment for drinking problems comes in all forms. At UKAT, there is an appropriate route to recovery for everyone. Contact us today to seek judgment-free, specialist advice from a member of our consultation and admissions team.