I was recently watching a show where someone was drowning their sorrows in alcohol and was told to stop drinking because, “the pain is still there, even if you are wasted”. Sit with that for a moment, take a deep breath and really feel into this…
“the pain is still there, even if you are wasted”
That statement really hit home with me. It reminded me about my past relationship to alcohol, how I used it to escape my reality and avoid what I really needed to face in life.
- Insecurity
- Unworthiness
- Unresolved Emotional Trauma
- Being Untrue to Self
- Staying in Bad/Abusive Relationships
- Poor Boundaries
- Liquid “Courage” in Social Settings
- Fitting In
The list could go on and on but I think you get the idea!
And before I go on, let us NOT get hung up on the word “wasted” as the only measurement of abuse/escapism because that is an incorrect assessment. We do not have to be falling over drunk every night for it to be considered substance abuse. If there is a substance being used to escape something in life, it is abuse or at the very least, avoidance.
Alcohol and other drugs are numbing agents that do not eradicate the underlying issue that led to the pain in the first place. They are a way to temporarily escape the problem rather than face it. The problem with this is that eventually the numbing agent wears off and the pain intensifies over time. It is the body and soul’s way of saying there is something wrong and we need to focus on addressing (healing) the core issue.
September is National Recovery Month
Each moment of every day is an invitation to create conscious awareness in life. It is an invitation to explore the feelings and emotions we have, to gain a deeper understanding to what our core issues are and to exercise a choice.
Do we choose to escape the cues (pain) or do we choose to deal with them head on?
The decision is ours but know this…Awareness is key! Awareness allows us to make different, better aligned choices in life, if we choose to.