Our recovery journey teaches us many important life lessons, lessons we need not only to recover from addiction but also to find lasting happiness and unconditional inner peace. Among the life lessons of recovery is the importance of asking for help. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness.
We learn by example from the people around us, often the parents and caregivers who raised us, who themselves learned that asking for help was something to be ashamed of. We’re taught to be independent and self-sufficient. From a young age, we strive to shed any dependence on other people, believing that our worthiness is tied to our ability to function completely on our own. Needing help from other people has become something that is culturally frowned upon.
Asking for Help and Learning Humility
Addiction recovery is a lesson in humility. We learn to humble ourselves and let go of our feelings of invincibility. Our devastating dependence on our drug of choice makes us feel powerless, and we realize that in order to regain our inner power, we must ask for help. We discover that we actually need community. Many of us will need professional help from treatment centers like Athens Area Commencement Center.
None of us is meant to do everything on our own, nor are we able to. Asking for help is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. Being able to acknowledge when we need help is a testament to our humility.
Asking for Help and Moving Past Denial
When we aren’t ready to ask for help, it is often because we’re still in denial about the nature of our addiction. We try to convince ourselves that we don’t actually have a problem, telling ourselves we’ll quit if things get out of hand. Sometimes, we’re optimistic that if we can only learn to use our drug of choice in moderation, we’ll be able to keep using it and not have to give it up altogether. We think it’s simply a matter of learning more self-control.
For some of us, we’ve seen others with more dire life circumstances, having lost their jobs or their homes, and we think we must not really have an addiction like they do if we’re financially stable and able to function in our daily lives.
Honesty, Vulnerability, and Asking for Help
We don’t want to believe the hard truth that we do, in fact, have an addiction. In time, we find that admitting this truth to ourselves and asking for help is necessary in order to recover. When we’re ready, we learn to be honest with ourselves and others, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. Being honest about our addictions means we finally move past the denial that has been holding us back. Honesty gives us the opportunity to heal.
Self-Isolation, Self-Protection, and Asking for Help
From years of struggling with addiction and other mental health issues, many of us have learned to isolate ourselves. This self-isolation is often a means of self-protection. We try to protect ourselves from being judged and looked down upon by other people. Further, we don’t want to be labeled with the stereotypes surrounding addiction, stereotypes of immorality and dishonesty. People may have called us weak or lazy for not having quit yet.
It can be daunting to be open about our struggles, given the ways in which addiction is stigmatized and those struggling with addiction are condemned. When we’re isolating ourselves out of fear and a need to protect ourselves from judgment, asking for help can feel like an insurmountable undertaking.
Concealing Our Addictions and Asking for Help
Sometimes, it’s our addiction we’re protecting through self-isolation and secrecy. We know that if other people were to discover our secret, they would try to convince us to get help. These patterns of concealing our addiction are evidence that we aren’t quite ready to give up our attachment to our drug of choice. We’re still quite dependent and not ready to ask for help to let it go.
When we do finally seek community and are ready to ask for help, we learn that our patterns of self-isolation and hiding were actually a very common part of the illness. Concealing and lying about our addiction is a means of protecting it so that we can continue it. Surrounding ourselves with support, seeking out professional resources, and asking for help when we need it are ways we free ourselves from the clutches of our illness.
Summoning Our Courage and Asking for Help
Asking for help when we’ve been conditioned not to be evidence of our courage. It’s a major step in the healing journey, one that helps lead the way to lasting transformative change. Being able to admit we need help is one of the most courageous things we’ll ever do. Acknowledging our fears, whether fears of judgment or fears of starting treatment, is the first step in moving through those fears. Recovering from our addiction invites us to be honest about that fear, face our fear with courage, and seek out the help we need.
The team at Athens Area Commencement Center understands how hard it can be to ask for help, and we’re standing by whenever you’re ready.
Struggling with any of life’s challenges, including addiction, can be seen as a sign of weakness. Sometimes, we think we need to be infallible or invincible in order to be worthy and deserving. Recovering from addiction teaches us that we aren’t infallible or invincible. We actually need help, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. Asking for help is a sign of strength, humility, honesty, and courage. Athens Area Commencement Center is here to offer support and a loving community whenever you’re ready to ask for help. Call (706) 546-7355 for information on our treatment programs and all the ways we can help you as you do the work to heal from addiction.