Near the beginning of your recovery journey, you may feel internal resistance. You may doubt your ability to accept the current state of your addiction. The stress responses within our body naturally reject unpleasant feelings and thoughts that bring us fear. Subconsciously, you may reject your current situation and reason for being in recovery. Acceptance can be terrifying.
Alternatively, you may find that you have accepted the state of your addiction but fear that you will never be viewed the same by society. Many individuals in recovery have a deep-rooted fear that they will never be accepted into society if their struggle with addiction becomes known.
These fears are normal, but you do not have to give them power over you. You do not have to let them hold you back from sharing your story and striving for freedom. Fortunately, there are many ways to manage these fears and accept yourself for who you truly are.
The Biological Fear Response
The brain reacts uniquely to feelings of fear. The amygdala is the main part of the brain responsible for processing fear. Naturally, the amygdala works to avoid feelings of fear. In most cases, this protects us. After all, many dangerous things provoke a rightful fear response.
Unfortunately, the fear response can also be triggered by situations we need to face. For example, the fear response leads many individuals in recovery to avoid accepting their state of addiction. They may fear the consequences of this acceptance. Therefore, the amygdala works to avoid this acceptance, as it views accepting the state of addiction as a form of danger.
The good news is that you can experience a fear response without letting it control your decisions. There may be some unpleasant experiences that come along with acceptance, but you can handle those. You can choose to acknowledge that acceptance is necessary for you to move forward in your recovery.
What Is Acceptance?
Acceptance is the ability to acknowledge your current situation and the challenges ahead of you. It allows you to embrace the journey rather than avoid it out of fear of its hardships.
Entering a state of acceptance, you can develop a realistic perspective of what your current needs are in recovery. This mindset can help you to set goals to move forward.
It can also empower you to overcome the challenges ahead of you. Rejecting the possibility of challenges only postpones when you will need to face them. Accepting your current state and working past these hardships sets you up to succeed more efficiently. This can help you avoid dragging out the process of recovery.
How to Reach a State of Acceptance
There are many strategies you can use to reach a state of acceptance in your recovery journey. By implementing these techniques, you can overcome your fears and embrace the path ahead of you. Our treatment team will meet you where you are to ensure your recovery plan is set up for your needs moving forward.
#1. Be Receptive
One of the most effective ways to reach a state of acceptance is to be receptive to feedback from others. It can be easy to dismiss feedback from others and assume they do not know what’s best for you. However, sometimes, that feedback is exactly what you need to hear.
Not all feedback you receive will be beneficial. Trust that, when you are receptive to feedback, you will be able to accept the feedback that can help you and be at peace with the feedback that does not. Be receptive to the feedback of others and consider how their feedback can be applied to better yourself.
Acceptance of your state of recovery also includes accepting your faults. If others provide you with feedback, being receptive to it can help you improve your level of self-acceptance. Being open with yourself about your faults and areas for improvement can set you up for success. It can help you create a plan that effectively contributes to your well-being.
#2. Recognize Your Weaknesses
Many people feel that acceptance means that you have to be fully comfortable with who you are and your current situation. However, this is not necessarily always the case.
Reaching a state of acceptance may mean that you are acknowledging your weaknesses. This includes the aspects of yourself that you are not particularly fond of. It can be challenging to accept the negative sides of yourself. However, understanding them and accepting them puts you in a place to change those aspects.
As you begin to notice and accept your current weaknesses, consider what you can do to change for the better. Understanding the areas of yourself or your life that you do not like allows you to clearly understand what actions you need to take to improve your situation.
Recovery is a great time to implement changes within yourself that positively influence your overall well-being. Accepting your addiction and other weaknesses, you can implement habits to overcome those negative aspects.
#3. Focus on the Positives
A common challenge of gaining acceptance in recovery is processing the fear that stands in the way. There is no easy way to avoid this fear.
One of the best ways to acknowledge fear is to face it head-on. Accept that there will be unpleasant and difficult aspects of the recovery journey. Remember that there will be joyful and triumphant aspects as well. Finally, acknowledge that you can choose to focus on the positives.
Think deeply about the positive aspects that will come your way after you increase your level of self-acceptance. Focus your thought processes on the potential benefits that acceptance and recovery will bring to you in the long run. Staying focused on the positives can help you overcome the obstacle of facing your fear of acceptance.
As you begin your recovery journey, you may find that you are having difficulty accepting your current state of addiction. This is very common, especially during the early stages of recovery. Even after accepting your addiction, you may find that you are having a hard time accepting yourself for who you are. Using these techniques, you can improve your level of self-acceptance to assist you in recovery. Try to be receptive to the feedback others provide, recognize your weak points, and focus on the positives as you move forward. To learn more about facing the fear of acceptance in recovery, reach out to Dream Recovery today by calling us at (657) 216-7218.