I’m new to this. I had my lowest moment yesterday night. What has helped you with staying sober? I use to drink to not remember all the trauma and never feeling good enough or worth it. How can I block these thoughts and feelings?
You can’t block them. You have to face them and it’s very difficult but there is no escape route, you have to go through it. But please don’t feel despondent. On the other side is who you want to be. The best you possible. You will love yourself and forgive yourself and you will be happy. At last. I speak from experience. 33 years of substance abuse.
I’m still facing it and feel much better about myself. I have boundaries which increases my self worth. I have to take medication for mental illness. I have therapy. I’ve been hospitalised. One thing I know now is that succumbing to addictive substances keeps me enslaved. I’m finally feeling like there is hope for a peaceful, sober and happy future.
Hang in there, it does get better
Don’t. You allready tried blocking them by drinking. Didn’t work out too well did it
Allow those thoughts and feelings to be there. They don’t disappear by wishing. But we can reduce their impact on us by just allowing them to be there. They are just thoughts and feelings. No holy truth.
I’m almost 3 years clean now and this morning was the first time ever I could look at myself in the mirror and tell myself I am okay, that I can stop the fight.
Some things take time. Just have faith in the outcome
Sadly you can’t block those feelings out, you can only try to deal with them in a healthy way. I know it’s hard. Everytime my life gets hard or things happen the bottle is the first thing I gravitate towards but you’ve got it in you to beat this disease.
That’s what it is. A disease that you can overcome when you put your mind to it. Put yourself first and know you’ve got the strength
Thank you I needed that. My doctor has me on a medication to help. An I’m beinging to journal and reading a lot of self help books about trauma.
Still learning
I honestly wish I could tell you there was something magical to “block” that trauma out while being clean and sober. But there isn’t I too have alot of trauma from my past. I definitly used drugs for a very long time to cope with that trauma. Using drugs in turn created more horrific opportunities for further trauma. It’s a horrible cycle. Getting clean I definitly had my good share of crying and screaming in anger lol I think it takes time (it did for me, and I am still working thru some trauma). It’s almost like peeling layers of an onion… certain things will pop up and it will signal us that we may need to take a look at it. Some of that for me was forgiveness of what others have done. I know that sounds strange but I had to forgive them and realize that they were very sick people. I didn’t forgive them for them (in fact I never even told them I forgave them), but I forgave them for me bcuz even years after the trauma was done, they still were taking something from me, which was my inner peace, my happiness, and my chance at recovery. Other trauma has to do with forgiveness of myself and I am still working on that. But recovery is just that… recovery. Just bcuz we stop drinking and using, doesn’t mean that everything gets better. We begin to recover and reclaim pieces of our lives that we’re destroyed. It’s hard but it is doable. Sometimes we do need that extra support from professionals also to help us work thru some very tough stuff. Wishing u all the best!
It sounds like you have good coping strategies in place. Best wishes to you