Co-occurring Disorders

Once you’ve established your sobriety, whether through a rehab facility or with the help of a twelve-step program, you need to stay there. While twelve-step or similar programs provide an excellent framework for maintaining your sobriety you may sometimes find you need something more. You might want to explore the motivations underlying your triggers, or the deeper emotions that fuel your addictive tendencies. In addition, you may want to learn tools and skills that will help you navigate the social situations you’ve found troublesome in the past.

You’ve done one of the hardest things there is for a person to do, which is escaping the tyranny of addiction. Sober support is essential for remaining on this new path you’ve chosen for yourself. At West Hartford Holistic Counseling, our experienced counselors can support you in re-establishing your life, finding social and emotional stability and sustaining your sobriety.

Now that you’ve made that choice, you may have some questions about the process of recovery and what to expect.

How do I overcome the fear of relapsing?

One of the biggest sources of our fear and anxiety is feeling like we don’t know what’s going to happen. Working with an experienced counselor, you will come to an understanding of your triggers and what motivates you to fall into the self-medicating behavior that leads to your addictive cycle. Once you’ve got a handle on the people, places and things that can trigger you, you’ll know what to expect, both from yourself and your environment. That knowledge can help you suspend your fear, so you can stay present in your sobriety.

How do I regain the trust of my family and friends?

Actions speak louder than words. One of the hardest lessons you will learn around establishing your sobriety is acceptance: acceptance of yourself and acceptance of the consequences of your past actions. No litany of promises will help you re-establish the trust you may have lost, but simply staying the course and demonstrating that you are authentic in your desire to maintain your recovery will show the people in your life that you are sincere. You may have to prepare yourself that some of the people in your life will never fully trust you again, and stay grounded in the positive experience of those who do.

How do I rid myself of the toxic people who don’t seem to support my efforts to get sober?

One of the most important things you can do for yourself in establishing and maintaining your sobriety is to set boundaries. As you work with your counselor to understand the people, place and things that trigger you, you will begin to see where those boundaries need to be set. Impulsivity, and the poor choices that go along with that impulsivity, are a hallmark of addictive behavior, whether you’re actively using or sober. With the deep understanding of your triggers that develops through your work in counseling, you will be better able to identify who is supporting your efforts and who is undermining them.

How do I move through my maturity as a sober person?

When you fall into the spiral of addiction, you also fall into a state of sort of suspended animation. When you re-emerge, you are exactly where you started when you picked up. The challenge this presents is that you have to start moving forward again, learning the tools and skills that will support you, not only in your recovery, but in your activities of daily living. Working with an experienced counselor is one of the keys to creating this forward motion for you, both as someone in recovery and as a person. Your counselor will help you to understand where your strengths are, where your challenges may be, what you need to work on and what you need to let go. This is all part of your unique recovery process and the process of reclaiming your life.

How do I regain trust in myself?

Trust in you is a matter of acceptance and a willingness to believe that bad behavior does not make for bad people. No matter what addiction is—a disease, something hereditary, a behavior problem or a choice—you have gotten to a place where you recognize your vulnerabilities. Counseling for your addiction will support you getting a perspective on those vulnerabilities, so you can develop strategies to address your triggers and gain confidence that you will be able to meet whatever challenges your vulnerabilities throw at you.