A low sense of self-esteem is a problem for a majority of addicts and alcoholics. Many find substance abuse to be a way to make themselves feel better or ignore how badly they feel about themselves.
Learn To Take Your Power Back By Identifying What You Let Take It From You
“Triggers” are the people, places, things, and circumstances that make us feel as though the rug has been pulled from beneath our feet. A certain synapse fire in our brain causes us to temporarily lose sight of the strength, knowledge, and recovery we have gained through treatment. Sometimes we hear an old, uncomfortable nickname that we used to let make us feel as though we were less than other people. Other times we were around drugs and alcohol in a place where we used to imbibe and feel an old tingling need to pick up a drink or a drug. All of these things can affect our self-esteem because we aren’t in a place of feeling good about ourselves. Esteemable actions begin with recognizing what caused us to feel we couldn’t act in an esteemable way for ourselves or others. Working on your own or more successfully with a therapist, you can identify the different things that trigger your self-esteem loss. Concurrently, you can develop a plan to overcome them and develop tools for coping with them when they happen.
Eliminate Any Thoughts Which Don’t Serve Your Self-Esteem
We aren’t born with a sense of low self-esteem. First, we go through an intricate psychological development process to identify the self and then figure out who is exactly. We don’t have any idea that we are less than anyone else because we know better. It is the pain of the world and other people’s pain, which teaches us the false truth about who we are. Overtime we incorporate these lessons into our psyche, turning them into solid beliefs about ourselves and how we fit into the world. Through working the steps, working with a therapist, and going through the treatment process, we learn to eliminate these beliefs. Recovery gives us the freedom to decide what we want to believe about ourselves.
Participate In Esteemable Acts To Boost Self-Esteem
Doing what makes us feel good about ourselves is good for feeling better about ourselves. It is just logic. We learn to do what makes us feel and believe we are who we want to feel and believe. Esteemable acts will look a little different for each person. However, generally, there are a few things everyone feels better about, like: helping others, practicing gratitude, practicing self-care, and other activities.
Recovery happens one step at a time. Take your first step today by calling Design For Change to get information on how our treatment programs can help you recover. Call 855-997-1372 for more information today.
