The Importance of Seeing Success
The sheer magnitude of addiction recovery can feel overwhelming for most people, especially in the early stages of recovery. Being asked to reflect on their own relationships with friends and family, as well as acknowledge the detriments that alcohol or drugs have had on someone’s life, is a very tall order. The difficult nature of addiction recovery can take a lot of energy out of each person, regardless of their stage in recovery.
Motivation, then, is an incredibly important factor in pursuing an effective, prolonged recovery. Because of this, seeing success in motion throughout the various stages of recovery is paramount to keep someone constantly moving towards the next step in their lives.
Seeing Success in Detox
The detox phase of someone’s recovery is the most uncomfortable by no small margin. Withdrawal symptoms will set in that carry many physical and mental effects in each person. This discomfort can lead someone to see recovery in a negative light, no matter how prepared for the withdrawal symptoms they might think they are. Knowing about the difficulties of the detox phase is only part of the solution.
It is just as important to provide information on what lies beyond the detox phase in recovery, so someone can think beyond their current discomfort and reestablish the “why” of their recovery. Someone in detox can benefit greatly from seeing those who have not only gone through the process themselves, but have also graduated onto further phases of recovery and are operating in a supportive, functioning community.
Seeing success can help someone not just focus on getting through the discomfort for the day, but rather, have them focus on the exciting opportunities that exist just outside the window. Seeing success in motion, even during the most uncomfortable times, can be the motivation someone needs in order to continue their recovery and establish a positive, healthy relationship with the recovery process, as well as the recovery community as a whole.
Building Blocks of Self-Esteem
In the early stages of recovery, it is not uncommon for most people to feel like their self-esteem is at an all-time low. During this time, people have begun to acknowledge their vulnerabilities, but have not necessarily had the time to work with a professional long enough to dissect the various factors that are at play in addiction.
Building up this confidence in recovery is the first step towards being an involved, participating member of the recovery community. However, in order to plant the first few seeds of self-esteem, it is important to outline success on whatever scale is applicable. Seeing other people who have started from similar points can be motivational, just as much as learning to see someone’s own successes.
Even in situations where anxiety is high and self-esteem is low, choosing to stay at the recovery facility itself is a huge success in recovery. It is proof not just that someone still wants a different life for themselves, but also that they do have agency over their addiction. It can simply be a matter of seeing these successes for the accomplishments they truly are.
Helping Someone Define Success for Themselves
Goal setting in recovery is its own complicated process. While someone may begin recovery with the goal of getting sober, they will also need to personalize their own goals and definitions of success. Seeing the success of others in motion–their goals, methods, and the impact the success has had on their lives–can help someone establish their own views of success.
Seeing someone engaging in their own hobbies without feeling tied down by their addiction is a powerful thing to experience. Developing one’s goals from “attaining sobriety” to “finding one’s own identity” is a profound shift. Goal setting in addiction is more about learning to live without engaging with an addictive substance. Rather, it is about finding a way to detach someone from their addiction so they can pursue their own goals in their lives as a whole.
Addiction recovery is extraordinarily difficult. Each step will come with its own trials that a person has to confront and subsequently overcome. However, having a community that has shared in these difficulties working alongside each other can help someone see the power that success has in a recovery setting. Not only is it important to find the successes in one’s self, but being around a supportive environment can be a constant source of motivation through the changing, difficult times that addiction recovery presents.
However, seeing success can help someone internalize each step that they take and can make the once impossible goal of “sobriety” feel like it is something tangible, instilling that ever-elusive feeling of hope that many people in recovery may need.
There are many ways that addiction can impact someone, as well as their family and loved ones. While addiction recovery is a very difficult and long process, that doesn’t mean that it is impossible. At Brighton Recovery Center, the need to see success and be a part of a community is championed as the primary philosophy behind successful and long-term recovery. With a large, multi-building campus and a large array of different services and therapy models available, Brighton is here to help you take your next step in recovery. With their on-campus, social detox program, success is literally outside the window, and the community serves as a constantly evolving, motivational tool for each person. From detox and sober living to partial hospitalization programs and outpatient therapy, Brighton is ready to address your unique situation and goals in recovery. For more information on how Brighton Recovery Center can help you, or to inquire about the options available for your unique case, call Brighton Recovery Center today at (844) 479-7035.