If you’re a recovered alcoholic or substance abuser, you know that escaping your addiction through rehab and recovery gave you a second chance at life. It’s a cause for celebration, after struggling through addiction and completing a rehab program successfully. You deserve to be acknowledged for your success!

However, it’s also important to remember that there can be dangers associated with the good times, as well as the bad times. It is therefore vital that people in recovery learn to enjoy their success without putting their sobriety in danger.

Getting beyond the past

When a substance abuser first becomes sober, they can have a long list of grudges against those who have hurt them in the past. In order to get on with their life, it’s crucial for them to be able to let go of those grudges and offer forgiveness. If they are unwilling to forget about past wrongs, it may hold them back in recovery or even lead to relapse. Those who do manage to get beyond their past will usually find that it greatly benefits their new life.

Forgiveness is the process of ending the resentment, indignation, or anger that results from a perceived offence. Not only is it possible for an addict to offer forgiveness to other people, but it is also possible for them to forgive themselves for past bad behavior.

We Only Have to Change One Thing

When we come to recovery for the first time, we're told we only have to change one thing: Everything! But just like it says in the Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, How It Works, "This sounds like a big order and we can't do it all at once, we didn't become addicted in one day, so remember, easy does it." And we say, “But do it!” We’re told, the person we are today will use again, so change must happen in order for us to stay clean and sober.

Look where we’ve ended up! We are at meeting instead of a bar on a Friday night. Whoever would have thought this would happen? It is time to put away our old ways of thinking and doing and try something different, otherwise we are guaranteed more pain, suffering and misery. So where do we start?

People who are trapped in addiction can suffer greatly. Their obsession with alcohol and drugs can lead to the destruction of everything they hold dear. It is usually obvious that their addictive behavior is the source of the misery, but the individual may still be unwilling to change. This is because there is comfort in familiarity and change takes a great deal of courage because it is a step into the unknown. it is vital that people summon up the necessary courage to move forward.

There is no doubt that entering recovery is a courageous move. Change is never easy – even when it means that people are leaving a miserable situation for a much better one. Embracing change during recovery takes courage, because recovery is a process and not an event. Becoming sober is just the first step; there will be plenty more challenges ahead.

We Only Have to Change One Thing: Everything!

“If I stop drinking and using drugs, life will be dull and boring.”

“Without drinking, I will have nothing to do at parties.”

One of the things that I learned early on in my recovery from alcoholism was that as long as I continued drinking, peace of mind was never going to be achieved. Considering the path my life took in the months and years preceding my decision to enter alcohol rehab, they were absolutely right.

So, what do I do to stop the pain in my head? That’s the question that many alcoholics face in early recovery. At 12 Palms Recovery Center, that answer can be found.