I’ve started doing the 12 steps with a group of woman who have struggled with addiction just like me. Last week we did Step One. As I went through this step, it’s easy to forget how crazy life was in addiction when your out of it, but it was good for me to reflect on it. One of the questions that stood out to me was 6 months before you became sober how did you lie about, hide or minimized your addiction. I used to lie a lot to get what I felt I needed. I would manipulate and I would hide the fact I was acting out by getting around the filters on my computer. When one is caught in addiction you will do anything to get your next high and who cares about anyone else. Addiction causes you to do things that you would not do when sober.
When my life was unmanageable I would micromanage my life to avoid feeling empty, anxious or worthless. I felt if I could control all of this then I would stop from feeling worthlessness. It does not matter what addiction we are caught in that feeling of worthlessness can used to make me feel like I could drown. The more I used the more this feeling doomed over me. Along with these feelings I hated rejection nobody to love me or I felt I was unloveable. A person in my life showed me recently that when I experience self hate it makes me want to continue in addiction then comes shame, embarrassment and it will come full circle to self hatred.
My life was unmanageable and I had lost my sense of dignity. Even though I could hide my addiction well it made me feel awful and everytime I fell I promised myself that I would never do it again. We all know that is part of the unmanageable part of addiction. I used to feel huge guilt and shame and it would cause me to feel more isolated from the world. I lost relationship with my husband and my marriage fell to the wayside.
Now that I’m in recovery I feel much gratitude everyday for the small things and I’m grateful the most for my 17 months of sobriety. It’s good to go back and see how crazy and unmanageable life was in addiction but glad I’m not on that crazy cycle anymore. AS I work through these 12 steps I want to be able to share with you just how powerless we really are in addiction. There is help out there for all of us. I was tired of fighting this battle alone.
Wow! That is very true. Especially not addmitting that you have a problem and feeling self-hatred. God Bless you for sharing.
I have to reblog this!
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Reblogged this on My Jesus Is Amazing and commented:
Hello Peeps. How are you this beautiful day. Here is an amazing article from Walking in Freedom. She highlights the importance of admitting that you have a problem. This is because, an addict’s life is spent in denial. The most common trait is, hiding and so much more she has highlighted. Follow her blog as she will talk of the other steps towards recovery. Read to find out more…
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Thank you for sharing this. I will do a post once a week on the 12 steps. Thanks for following
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There is an epidemic of sexual immorality in our generation. We need to work together and get the word out there to help people. Thank you so much for posting. May God Bless you richly in Jesus name!
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Reblogged this on Something to Stu Over and commented:
Realize my life had become unmanageable…yep! I remember that feeling, as well as the vicious cycle of saying I quit, look again, shame, guilt, feeling unloved and unworthy and then fall again and repeat.
You can’t do it on your own! Reach out! Get help! Find someone to be accountable to! A real relationship with God is the only I found freedom!
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Awesome I love this. The root to my sexual addiction was unforgiveness in my heart.
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That was part of mine along with being molested at a very young age. I suppressed it for decades. And after weeks of begging God for answers He showed me what I had forgotten. That night was a dousy but it helped tremendously to forgive him and move forward!
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Awesome I love when God does that. Mine started as well from sexual abuse when I was 10. I hate that this happened for you as well. It really messes up how we look and think about things.
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That it does! But, we can both testify that there IS healing, forgiveness and freedom!
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