Deciding to seek addiction treatment and work a program of addiction recovery is not a choice that comes quickly. One’s disease is continuously at work convincing you everything is under control, despite the unhappiness characterizing your life. Committing oneself to a new way of existence requires remarkable courage; addicts and alcoholics are rebelling against their condition. Choosing to live life in a completely different way requires more than just putting down substances, changing everything is needed.
Young men whose lives became unmanageable due to this most severe mental health condition might struggle early in recovery. Coming to terms with turning your back on one’s previous way of life is often difficult to swallow. The realization that specific people, places, and things can no longer be a part of your life can be painful. However, if you are willing to go to any length to live in the light of recovery, good-byes are in order.
The disease is about far more than drugs and alcohol and one’s relationship with mind-altering substances. People in active addiction are unable to live life on life’s terms, one who struggles to cope with life’s demands. In many cases, such people are also dealing with co-occurring mental health disorders, like depression. When that is the case, drugs and alcohol can seem like the solution. After all, euphoria has been known to ease one’s troubled mind. Using drugs and alcohol for relief, over time, has the opposite effect. Once the source of happiness, now the source of misery.
A significant facet of addiction treatment is teaching clients about coping with obstacles that are beyond one’s control. Learning how to accept the things we can’t change is instrumental to lasting recovery.
Happiness in Addiction Recovery
Those unhappy while in the throes of addiction might expect the reverse in recovery. The reality is that finding equilibrium and balance in your life takes time, addiction recovery is a process. Just because you extricated drugs and alcohol from your life doesn’t mean life with be smooth sailing right away. The wreckage of our past doesn’t disappear because we got clean and sober. The damage done must be addressed, and will be at the proper time, but that isn’t going to occur immediately. Painful memories will still linger over your head and inside you in early recovery.
If you follow the direction of those who came before you, life will get better in time. It’s paramount that you stick to the program, working the steps will illuminate your life. Although, you will have to work through many unpleasantries to get to the point of comfort. In early recovery, everything asked of you is foreign; at times, you may feel like ignoring your peers’ suggestions. It is crucial that you resist the urge to distract yourself from the task at hand—recovery. It will not always be easy to accomplish, especially in the times we find ourselves. There isn’t a shortage of distractions in this day and age, especially for young men.
You may find yourself wanting to put off a meeting in favor of television or playing video games, ignore the urge. In recovery, we must avoid anything that distracts from something essential to the program. The early months of recovery can feel like every choice you ever made led to the unfortunate disease of addiction. You may feel unhappy about your lot in life, but you’ve decided to make changes to rectify the situation.
Avoiding Distraction In Early Recovery
Many young adult males play video games on a regular basis, and there are concerns this behavior is addictive. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists online gaming as a “condition of further study.” The reference prompted researchers in the UK to do that very thing, which lead to some interesting findings. The research, published in PeerJ, didn’t determine if gaming addiction was a real psychiatric disorder. However, the researchers found that gaming may be a “displacement activity for people in an unhappy situation,” New Scientist reports. Regarding addiction recovery, their findings may show how young men might turn to games for mental distraction.
If someone uses gaming to meet basic psychological needs, this could become a problem if they are not able to satisfy these needs in real life,” says Daria Kuss, a cyber-psychology researcher at Nottingham Trent University, UK. “But to confirm this, we need clinical samples of people who are being treated for addiction in centres.”
While the verdict on gaming addiction is still out, research like this is useful to people working a program. Young adult males play video games more than any other demographic. It stands to reason that young men in recovery will turn to online gaming as a distraction from their feelings. This is not to say that people in recovery can’t play video games. If individuals are cognizant of why they’re playing, for occasional fun rather than displacement, it should not be harmful. Perhaps you are a young man in early recovery who plays video games regularly? If so, you may want to examine your relationship with the activity; “does gaming hurt my prospects for long-term recovery?”
Addiction Recovery
Are you struggling with addiction? At PACE Recovery Center, we can help you learn how to live life on life’s terms, one day at a time. Addiction recovery is not easy, but with continued spiritual maintenance your life will exponentially improve.
