Addiction changes the way people interact with family and friends. It often causes a person to lie, cheat, steal, and even just ignore the ones they love the most. Without a doubt, this is a disease that is progressive until you get help, meaning that relationships will likely continue to struggle until you take steps to get into treatment. What happens when you start treatment, though? Not everyone will just forgive you. You need to learn how to improve and move forward.
Steps to Take While Forgiving
The first step is to recognize that there will be some people you should not become involved with once you leave treatment. These are people that used with you, people that encouraged you to continue to use, and those who are still using drugs today. That is because the risk of being around them is too high for most people.
The other key factor to consider is those people that you do love and want to get help. These are friends and family members who perhaps you pushed off. They may be people that you did not treat well. When you learn how to make amends with these individuals, you can begin to work on the path of healing. You will learn how to improve like this in family therapy, where you will bring in people that you love and want to rebuild relationships with to get help working through the difficulties there.
Why Is It Hard to Forgive Yourself?
The next person to forgive is yourself. There is a very big part of this treatment process that involves learning forgiveness for what you are facing. Some people feel ashamed of what they did. Others struggle to forgive themselves because of the consequences, such as using drugs could hurt your loved ones.
There is no easy way to forgive yourself, but there are a few things to remember.
- Addiction is a progressive and chronic disease. Once it starts, it is nearly impossible to stop and control on your own. Rather, you may find yourself unable to stop using because of the way these drugs change your brain’s function.
- You may have been dealing with trauma or a mental health disorder that made it very hard for you to stop using these substances. In those situations, it’s hard for anyone to just stop using.
Try to find a way to realize that what happened occurred but that you are working towards improving now. It takes time and a lot of hard work. You cannot fix what happened yesterday, but you can focus on your future.
How to Forgive Others
Why is it important to forgive others? Often, there are people in your life who you believe could have helped you or perhaps people that turned their back on you when you needed them the most. In these situations, it is very hard to forgive others. Yet, doing so is critical to your own recovery and future. If you continue to harbor resentment and pain from what others did to you, it cannot get better. You will continue to struggle with that frustration and pain.
The truth is, you may not know why your loved ones did not help you. You may never understand what occurred that created this path. What you do know is that you can overcome challenges on your own. You don’t need them to forgive you. All you need for your future is to forgive yourself and let go of what they did to you.
Can you learn how to forgive others? Of course, it takes time, but simply really and truly telling them that you forgive them may be enough. Other times, you don’t even need to see them. Forgive them and stop thinking about it. Learn to push these thoughts out of your mind. That way, you can focus on being who you are on your own.
Finding Help in Treatment Is Worthwhile
If you’re seeking support and struggling with the forgiveness of others or yourself, know that you’re not alone. Please reach out to 1st Step Behavioral Health with a call or text today at (855) 425-4846.Or reach out to our team bycontacting ushere. Find out how you can get help overcoming the limitations you’re facing so you can live a life you love.
