Fear As A Block To Addiction Recovery

I do not believe that it is a far stretch the imagination to consider fear as a predominant emotion for those active in addiction, as well as those entering addiction recovery.

Upon examination, we can almost see it as an underlying backdrop to everything that goes on in our lives. It can be deeply insidious in that it is our view of the world, the position from which we operate.

Fear is not an entirely negative emotion; I mean, if I’m crossing the street and I see a truck bearing down on me at 60 miles an hour, I should be scared. Hopefully, I’ll be scared into action and jump out of the way.

As with any emotion, it becomes problematic when it becomes unbalanced and over emphasized. I am going to try to make the point that fear permeates our lives and can cause some serious damage to ourselves. This is true even as we make progress in addiction recovery; unless we take some action to address it.

“No matter how somebody is presenting themselves on the outside when they enter treatment, just remember that on the inside there is deep, ingrained, longstanding fear.”
My supervisor spoke those words to me and I remember them very clearly. I was a counseling intern working in my first inpatient treatment center. The point that was being taught was that the angry person almost definitely has underlying fear. The person who presents himself as being happy go lucky and the class clown is probably deeply afraid of being called out. The person who is very sad is really afraid that there’s no hope of change.
I remember that lesson well.

I’d like ask you some questions; and here they are:

Why are you trying to get sober? I mean, getting sober and staying sober is very difficult. What is your payoff? What are you trying to achieve?

Answers that I have received have included happiness, peace of mind, serenity, a better life, to make up for lost opportunities, and to ‘fulfill my potential’. How about you? What’s your answer? Hang on to it; it’s important and I’m going ask you about it later.

I’ll tell you my early goal in recovery. It was this ‘stop the chaos, just stop, everything just stop’. I didn’t ask for happiness or joy. I knew that was beyond my reach. But man, just to have everything stop, that would be great.

Welcome back!

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Tagged as: addiction, Addiction Recovery, fear