Deciding to seek treatment for addiction and co-occurring mental illness is a difficult yet empowering choice. You may put off treatment because you feel like you’re incapable or unworthy of recovery. This is far from the truth and it’s important to not let these feelings stop you from reaching out to receive the treatment you deserve. The longer substance use goes on, the deeper the addiction hooks its claws into you, and the more your mind and body are impacted.
Putting off treatment for substance use disorder and co-occurring mental illness costs you time spent building a relationship with your healthy self, discovering what makes you feel alive again, and connecting with others in healthy relationships.
Building a Relationship With Your Healthy Self
When it comes to recovery from any mental illness or addiction, start by distinguishing between your healthy and unhealthy self. Your healthy self makes decisions aligned with healing and your ultimate goals whereas your unhealthy self tends to make decisions rooted in familiar patterns of addiction.
Avoiding treatment until you are “ready,” or until the “time is right” means minimizing the amount of time you get to spend connected to your healthy self. When you begin treatment, you start living life from a space of greater health, joy, compassion, and balance.
Discovering What Brings You Joy
If you have experienced pain and suffering longer than you’ve ever experienced joy and presence in your life, feeling peaceful and content can often be a more confusing experience than that of addiction. You may encounter fear of the other shoe dropping, not trusting recovery to last, and discomfort with joy at the beginning of your recovery.
However, recovery is also a time to get reconnect with and discover what brings you joy in your life. It creates space to trust that you deserve to feel better.
Connecting With Others
One of the greatest joys in life can be connecting with others in healthy relationships. Beginning recovery also means learning the differences between healthy and toxic relationships. Then, you can surround yourself with those who support where you are going and set boundaries with those who don’t. Starting treatment now prolongs the amount of time you are able to spend in healthy, connected, and reciprocal relationships with others.
Choosing recovery is not easy and can feel challenging even after you begin treatment. However, it’s also an incredibly empowering choice—one that you have the autonomy to make. Putting off treatment until the time is “right” may feel comfortable, but it doesn’t allow you to heal.
Making the initial choice to begin treatment for substance use recovery can be difficult and conflicting. It’s like part of you desires to recover and receive the treatment you deserve, and another other part feels hesitant to do so. At Avalon Malibu, we recognize how difficult it can be to begin treatment for substance use disorder. We are here to support you as you reconnect with your healthy self, build healthy relationships, and rediscover what brings you joy. Call Avalon Malibu today at (844) 857-5992.
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