If you are in recovery, being honest is vital. You want to be honest with your treatment specialist and with yourself. The problem, though, is that being honest is not always an easy task to achieve. Those going through addiction will often fall into the habit of being dishonest with themselves and those around them. If you are late to work because of your addiction, you might tell your manager that you have the flu.
You must remember that being honest is an important part of recovery. When you want to solve a problem, you must take an honest look at it so that you can uncover what options make the most sense. Honesty and recovery move you in the right direction sooner than you once thought possible. Being honest does not mean you have to tell the entire world about your situation.
But you must be honest with yourself and the addiction experts who are working to help you move forward. Learn more about honesty and recovery, and how it impacts your life long-term.
Why People In Recovery Are Dishonest
For those struggling with addiction, dishonesty almost becomes a way of life. Those with addiction to drugs or alcohol don’t want others to know that they have an addiction. So they lie about what they are doing or where they are going. If they don’t make it to work one day, they come up with any reason that seems to make sense about why they missed work. They make up reason after reason to excuse their behavior.
They do this because they don’t think they have a choice, and they want to hide from their addiction. The lies they tell themselves are the worst ones. Ask yourself how honest you are with yourself. If you don’t tell the truth to anyone else, you must at least be honest with yourself. You can figure out where you are and where you stand. You also discover what steps you must take when you are honest with yourself.
Getting The Proper Treatment: How To Maintain Honesty And Recovery
Getting the proper treatment is one of the biggest reasons you have to be honest. Your therapist must know what you are going through if you want the best treatment option. If your therapist asks a question, they want to know what you are going through and how you got there. Unless you tell the truth, your therapist won’t know everything about your addiction or how to solve it.
You might get the wrong treatment plan. You could even be on the right path but not receive all the help you need. Being honest, on the other hand, lets your therapist know where you are and what you need to move forward. You then get the proper treatment option that moves you in the right direction. When you are honest, you give yourself the best possible odds of making a full recovery.
Reducing Your Risk of Relapse
Almost everyone going through recovery will relapse at some point. If this happens to you, view it as part of the process rather than a failure. The goal is to learn from each relapse so that you move forward as soon as possible. When it comes to relapsing and honesty, a few common lies keep coming up. People often tell themselves that they can hang out with old friends without falling into the same trap.
Or they might think they can use it one last time without getting addicted. The most common lie people tell themselves is that they will only do it one more time. If you are still using or thinking about using, be honest with yourself. This increases your odds of making a successful recovery in the future.
Safeguarding Your Relationships
Honesty is vital if your relationships matter to you. Going through recovery is hard, and those who have not done it won’t understand. You must also remember that dealing with someone going through recovery is also a challenge. Depending on your situation, you will likely lose friends and watch family walk away while you are dealing with addiction. But some of them might stay.
If they do, you mustn’t lie to them. Each lie you tell damages your relationships and makes it harder to have a normal life with them once you move past addiction. They will also wonder if you are using behind their back or if you are being honest about your financial troubles. If you don’t want a close friend or family member to know something, not talking about it is better than lying.
Planning for the Future
Set your sights high for the best results. Rather than looking only at your recovery, do your best to look past it. Look at how you want your life to be once you overcome addiction and complete your recovery. If you want to get the most from your effort, be honest with yourself. Being honest empowers you to look at the situation for what it is. It also lets you craft a plan that gives you the best results possible.
Be honest with yourself and your therapist about where you are and where you would like to be, and you will be glad you did. You can then approach the situation from an open and objective point of view. You become much more effective at planning for your future, and you boost your overall odds of success. When it comes to the future, honesty is a vital part of the puzzle you can never overlook.
Dealing With Difficult Emotions
Going through recovery is not easy. It’s one of the hardest things you will ever do. You deal with many emotions, ranging from anger and denial to depression and defeat. Dealing with those emotions is one of the reasons being honest with yourself and your therapist is hard. The good news is that you can learn to deal with those emotions in a way that gives you even better results.
Meditation, for example, is a powerful way to deal with negative emotions. Take at least 10 minutes each day to sit back and reflect. Pay attention to your feelings, thoughts, and emotions without judging them. Allow your thoughts to fade into the background while you become aware of what you are feeling.
During this time, take slow and relaxed breaths to claim your mind. Do this once per day for at least a month to get the best possible results, and you will be glad you did. You become much more effective at dealing with your emotions when you meditate each day.
Keep A Journal
Writing down how you feel is a powerful way to deal with unwanted emotions. If you have never done this before, you will be amazed by how effective it is when it comes to your recovery. You can keep your journal on your computer and type it, or you can get a notebook to record your thoughts, emotions, and feelings.
Getting your feelings out into a journal helps you feel much better, and you will likely notice the difference right away. You also benefit because you can look back at your journal over time to see how much your honesty in recovery has improved. If you have not noticed how much progress you are making, you will probably notice when you review your past writings. When you see how far you have come, you will feel motivated to continue on the right path.
Lifetime Recovery Can Help
If you are ready to make addiction a thing of the past, welcome to Lifetime Recovery. We are a passionate team of recovery experts who care about each client who comes to us for the help and support they need. We take a unique approach to each person so that our clients have the best odds of reaching the outcome they want and deserve. The quality of your life hangs in the balance. You can’t afford to accept anything less than the best.
Individualized Treatment Options
Rather than offering the same generic approach to everyone who comes through our doors, we learn about you as a person. We learn about your addiction and what might have triggered it in the first place. We don’t just treat your addiction. We treat any mental health problems that go with it. This approach reduces your odds of relapsing and takes your recovery to a whole new level. We don’t judge or criticize you. We understand what it’s like to go through this difficult stage of your life. We stand by you each step of the way, letting you know you are in the best possible hands.
Honesty And Recovery: Getting Started
The best time to start or improve your recovery is today. Don’t put it off for another second. Learn about us and what our caring team can do for you. When you want to make the most of life and put addiction in the past for good, a team of trained, experienced and caring experts is what you need the most.
We are here for you in every possible way. If you need a sense of direction or a helping hand in creating a balance between honesty and recovery, we are here to point you in the right direction. Your success is our mission. Contact us today to begin.
