“Just one more drink won’t hurt.”
“It’s not like I hide alcohol around the house!”
“I’m not hurting anyone else.”
“I only get drunk on the weekends.”
The stories we tell ourselves…
Substance Use
If only it were as easy as not taking another drink. Life can be so painful at times that you justify a drink, or 2 or 10…and then once drinking turns to being drunk, disappointing those around you, and creating consequences you don’t want to face, you sit in the shame of what your drinking caused.
Shame and Substance Use
Shame can be a powerful feeling that covers you so completely that you don’t have any way to climb out of it. So you turn away from the shame by drinking too much again or using drugs to numb from the parts of life that create an ache inside that only numbing can soothe. Anything that can give you an artificial high or an effective lessening of the feelings that are just too heightened. And it does the job…if the job you want done is to have a manufactured gladness that is covering, deep down, a more consistent pain. With that numbing comes the biggest consequence of all, disconnection. You start turning away from your spouse, pulling back from friends, anything to hide and cover what you are doing. And even if you don’t pull away, how can you have any real connection with someone with the fog of addiction surrounding your every move.
Understanding Addiction
To really understand addiction, we must follow the “why.” There is a line between “normal” and “impaired” and the line is the “why.” The only way to understand the why is to turn the volume up on your feelings, not down. Numbing hides what really are your deepest desires, longings and needs.
How We Help
Our job as your counselor is a simple one. First, we create relationship with you. You aren’t alone. Second, we guide you to explore those feelings of sadness, loneliness, anger, hurt, fear… not just to sit in the pain of it but to listen for what those feelings have to tell you.
Because your feelings have lots to tell you.
Counseling and Recovery
Imagine dumping the basket out and starting over in the way you understand your feelings. Could it be possible that your feelings could be the best way for you to understand your life and to actually get your needs met? Through the counseling process we explore your needs for belonging, connection, and purpose. We want to help you recover the person you were meant to be and regain the life you were meant to live, finding hope and healing along the way. That is what real RECOVERY can be.
Substance Use Issues? Reach Out, we are Here to Help
Take the first step to real Recovery. We have helped countless people with substance use issues.
Contact us today so we can begin this work together or call us at 615-335-4751
“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”