Addiction Recovery

Addiction recovery from any addiction such as shame, ignorance, personal exceptionalism and dishonesty are a step to overcoming obstacles. However, the roadblocks to these particular addictions are nearly always cleverly sited and situated like military forts to supply mutual support in battling all attempts at addiction recovery. Mere ignorance of recovery and addiction is in theory remediable by exposure to specific medical information on the various topics. However, the interlinked and adjoining forts of dishonesty and shame serve to limit the amount of understanding the addicted person can acquire about his/her real condition. Moreover, the rectification of evasiveness and the dishonesty which is central and a suitable part of the psychology of addiction is rendered far more complicated by the co-existence of the addict’s ignorance of addiction and the resulting shame about addictive behavior.

In addiction recovery, personal exceptionalism of the addict or co-dependent permits the individual to allocate moral considerations and facts which would usually prove decisive in halting or at least decreasing the addiction. Due to the fact that the addict believes he/she is not like other people and that his/her case is exceptional, he/she has the right to justify and rationalize behaviors on his/her part which contravene personal beliefs and values. The price of all this, however, can be a bit steep. When the addict continues to bruise him/herself against the stubborn facts of the case, that individual experiences intense humiliation and shame—because he/she is an exception, the addict is “not supposed to behave that way”. The personal grandiosity simply makes the individual an easier target for accusations.

Withdrawal in Addiction Recovery

Addiction recovery can mean withdrawal and prolonged deprivation. Individuals in the middle of addiction usually imagine addiction recovery to be a state of ultimate or perpetual deprivation and self-denial with no gain except the questionable contentment of doing what’s right (staying out of trouble). They are sometimes attracted, but are far more repelled, by the prospect of a life without the satisfaction of their various addictions. The simple mention of the word recovery to an active co-dependent may result in snarling and apprehension. If addiction recovery means no more than giving up the addiction and thereafter existing in what amounts to a state of unmitigated, chronic and fundamentally unrecompensed withdrawal—in a kind of constricted, reduced and emasculated pseudo-existence, then it shouldn’t surprise anyone that addicted individuals thinking in this matter normally choose to give up the chance to embrace it.

Alcoholics in treatment frequently exclaim,” I’d rather be dead than go into rehab.” This is an aversion to the humiliation and embarrassment associated with such a course. Life is already difficult enough with alcohol. The prospect of living without what seems to them their sole source of comfort, enhancer and protector, alcohol is more than they will or can imagine. Therefore, they continue to consume the alcohol, often well aware of at least a major portion of the harm their consumption is doing to them.

Lasting Effect of Addiction Recovery

Although drinking alcohol can be bad, for the addict, addiction recovery seems unendurable. Anyone who proposes such an active course to alcoholic risks can be regarded as a sadistic, ignorant fool that doesn’t begin to understand the implications of what he/she is flippantly suggesting—that is a life without alcohol. Lasting addiction recovery is made more probable by an accurate understanding of the serious nature of the addictive process and of the methods discovered to be effective in keeping it in remission and overcoming it. In regard to addiction recovery, knowledge is the key to overcoming challenges. The more the addict understands about what is occurring, the better are the chances of success—long-term or short-term—at liberating him/herself from the addiction.