Struggles in Recovery

Being successful in recovery can be very challenging and requires a ton of effort. Obviously, the most crucial step is ending the substance abuse itself, but that isn’t the end of the road. Recovery is lifelong and is a choice you will face every single day, which makes those recovering extremely vulnerable to relapse.

These are the top 5 struggles that recovering addicts face during their lifelong journey of recovery:

1. Anger- Drug addiction changes the chemistry of your body and brain, and you may find yourself struggling with anger issues when recovering from addiction. In most cases, the anger is a normal part of life, but for recovering addicts, it can quickly lead to relapse.

2. Sadness or Depression- Sadness is another normal emotion, but that may be made worse by those who are recovering from drug addiction. Because of the changes in the brain, it can take a long time after stopping drugs for your body to regain some balance in emotions. Those recovering must learn to manage these emotions and create a routine and healthy lifestyle.

3. Being Around Drug Users- Often times those who are on the path to recovery find themselves wanting to spend time with the friends they had while on drugs. Usually, those people are also using drugs and this can be very dangerous. People want to fit in, they want to please, and they often give into temptation—and giving into that peer pressure can ruin some people’s chances at full recovery.

4. Happiness- Negative emotions can easily trigger relapse to drug use, but so can happy or joyful emotions. Exciting events in life usually are cause for celebration—it’s hard to celebrate as the ‘new’ you when the ‘old’ you would have used drugs as celebration.

5. Stress, Mistakes, and Boredom- Making mistakes, being stressful, having boring or dull days is a commonplace thing for everyone. But for those struggling through recovery, your mind might be quick to jump to the desire to take drugs again because you may think that will relieve your stress or boredom, or make you forget those mistakes.

All of these struggles are common, not only for everyone but especially for those who are recovering drug addicts. You must learn to understand who you are and how you feel, and learn to cope with those feelings. You have to strive to develop ways to do things without going back to using drugs.