Overcoming Depression and Addiction
Useful depression rehabilitation centres help clients to rebuild self esteem through new, sober decision making. Many turn to substances, isolation, drinking, gambling and other vices to distract from real life issues. The good news is chemical-free living offers choice. In order to achieve self-satisfaction and fulfillment, to enjoy being straight, you need to make sober choices. Depression rehabilitation centres like ours will teach you to be true to yourself. Don’t forget there will be pressure to return to your old, sick ways. This is why it is necessary to build a strong, sober support system to replace the need to return to sick behaviour. How you feel about who you are is enormously influenced by your friends. The painful transition of changing friends is best eased by activity. You can find out from members of a young people’s AA or NA group what they do for fun – straight good times. And you can also create your own good times with a sober party, going to a dance, bowling, going to movies, playing racquetball, biking, hiking, going on a picnic, horseback riding, sailing, swimming, etc. Just make it a rule to avoid those places and things where you suspect chemical use takes place. The old adage still holds true, “Keep off the tracks if you don’t want to get hit by the train.”
At school, be sure to develop friendships with straight kids as soon as possible (Do it right away!) Incredibly, many of your peers do not use alcohol or take drugs, and some are also recovering from chemical dependency. Here again, if you also truly want to make straight friends, you will have little difficulty in finding them. It is entirely possible that the messages you are sending out with your language, style of dress, and general attitude might still reflect a “using lifestyle”, which will continue to attract using peers or old using friends. You must be honest with yourself. You may be resisting a new self-image. At our depression rehabilitation centres we work on things like finding out Where is this resistance coming from? Rely on your sober support system for some guidance and truth. Seeing clearly for the first time scared me. I wasn’t quite sure if I was really seeing clearly at first or if I had just mastered the art of b.s-ing myself.
At the outset it might be difficult to determine what the truth is. Don’t be afraid to admit to it. A little fear can be a very healthy asset, especially in the early stages of recovery. Who you are has been clouded by chemicals for some time and the “hangover” of use stays with us. Remember, your disease constantly tells you “nothing’s wrong”. When you feel that, go back and take another look at those affected areas of your life, at the consequences which resulted, and KNOW you are forgiven. Then forgive yourself again. At that point, after honestly doing this, you’ll probably have little trouble in determining the truth. Through your development of a healthy, chemical-free lifestyle, outrageous and painful consequences fade away. Remember now, we are talking about consequences which were the by product of chemical dependency. At times the temptation to create a little insanity, to relive some of the rowdy past, may seem overwhelming. It’s natural to feel this negative pull, but it’s dangerous to act on it. Talk about it, perhaps in an aftercare group, with your sponsor, or with some supportive friends. Keep in mind that isolation will return you to insanity. You don’t have to be isolated in recovery unless you chose, and that is never the right choice! Our depression rehabilitation centres teach people that connection from depression or alcohol or both is always about connection.
Living with Yourself
However contrary this may sound, time spent alone is important. This is quite different from isolation however, in that it is often planned and only for a short time. Try to reserve about thirty minutes a day to be alone. This is a selected, special period of time to be with the most special person you know – you! Maybe it will be reflective – climbing inside yourself to reach feelings, to meditate, to pray. Or perhaps it will be expressive of those feelings – some journal or diary work, some form of structured relaxation such as a hobby, meditation, music, or arts and crafts. Depression rehabilitation centres often provide basic relaxation therapy, such as the use of ‘calm scenes’, tapes, tighten/release muscle exercises. In recalling some of these, you may want to expand on them. In doing these things, I have found that considerable spiritual growth takes place. This is the basis for all our growth. I know that I am a good person, I have potential. I try not to hurt people. Overall, I feel grateful because I can see myself becoming the person that I want to be. That is precisely the goal of depression rehabilitation centres, to get you back to your true self!
Survival will depend upon your ability to live with yourself, knowing and loving who you are, and who you are becoming. Life is really about “becoming” not “being”. Nothing and no one is totally constant. Everything is in process, and change is the norm. What we need to care about is the norm. What we need to care about is the direction in which change takes in our lives. You might consider time spent alone with yourself as a period of restoration – intentional pauses to help you restore your centeredness, to help you stay on target with your true self in the process of what you are becoming. It has been said that when we stop becoming, we are dead. I believe it’s true, and I am grateful for it. I mentioned the spiritual growth I experienced in these times. It came as a kind of spiritual refreshment and I never really felt alone, although there was no one with me. You, too, may not feel alone as your spiritual growth enhances your awareness. These “time outs” allow you to examine the present. “Where am I at? What are my needs? What am I going to do about them, today, now?”
The benefit of this examination is simple – it targets us to the present. The past (what happened) and the future (what might happen) doesn’t matter. At best, dwelling in either area is useless, and at worst, it can be very damaging. Sobriety is now. A sober yesterday is no guarantee of a sober tomorrow. But a sober today is for real. A core principle taught at our depression rehabilitation centres.
Depression rehabilitation centres on responsibility
One of the most important elements in developing a positive self-image in sobriety is the willingness to accept responsibility for ourselves. When I was out of control, I was out of control. But I can’t cop out on that either, because no one forced me to use or to drink. I did it – and I gave up control to chemicals and therefore was responsible for what I did. My Higher Power forgave me and I forgave myself and became willing to change.
Our course work, worked on at depression rehabilitation centres, asks “How important is this forgiveness”? Just look around at people wasting their lives trying to find places to put blame or pass off guilt. Do you think they aren’t aware of the irresponsibility of their actions? And don’t you know what kind of impact it has on their feelings about themselves? Doctors tell us fear and depression is common among such people because it is so difficult for them to live with themselves. It is too true that we know what we are, and too sad that many of us will not change. In a sense, my chemical dependency was an advantage because I became willing to change through recovery. I was never happy before sobriety. Now I’m not constantly happy, but I’m aware that I can be. I make the decisions that determine my happiness now, not drugs.
For anyone unwilling to own up to responsibilities, the burden of carrying them around becomes awfully heavy. At our depression rehabilitation centres we then ask what else can be done? If we won’t admit faults and forgive ourselves for them, they get carried around – and they get worse and worse, ever heavier to bear. What effect does this have on self-image? Being high on chemicals gave us good feelings in the short term, but they were false and short-lived. Chemicals did no more than mask pain and numb our feelings. If we are going to stay straight, sobriety has to feel better than being high felt. I loved feeling stoned. In my heart I knew I had to learn to love being straight more, or, quite honestly, I’d use again. My job is to get my best highs straight. And those feelings must come first from me because I’ve learned it’s essential that I get good feelings from myself. This must come before anything else in my life will work. There is nothing selfish or grandiose about it. It’s really nothing more than good sound mental and emotional health. When I’m okay with me, I’m okay with the world.
For more information about our depression rehabilitation centres please contact us on 0824424779, or email us.