The recovery journey requires you to make many decisions. You will continue to make progress in treatment and recovery when you make the right decisions. Every decision you make can be good or bad, depending on the situation and behavior. You may question your own judgment because of previous experiences you’ve undergone or decisions you've made, which can spill over into how you trust others throughout your recovery journey.
The process of recovery starts with the willingness to want to recover, even if you find yourself feeling some hesitation. In many cases, the process of recovery is aligned with discovery. However, recovery is also aligned with identifying your good and bad judgments. As you progress towards healing in addiction recovery, you can understand the differences between bad and good. You learn how you should or should not behave, and then the recovery journey begins.
The recovery journey helps you identify different areas where you need to be tested so that you can become more successful in the long run. Once you have tested yourself and learned to understand your self-doubt and identity, you can choose to make better decisions when chaotic situations arise.
For example, let's say you've decided that you’re going to continue reading to better understand moral and critical judgment. You’re going to learn something new, and you have opened up the door and recognized that education is good for you. Therefore, it’s a good judgment call. However, deciding to seek information to better yourself by reading about it, but then ignoring what you’ve read, falls within the bounds of irrationality.
If you struggle with substance use or someone you love struggles with substance use, recognition is the first key to the path of recovery. It may take multiple times to recognize that substance use is a challenge in your life, but recognition is still the first step toward enhancing your judgment.
In addiction recovery, you can identify bad judgment and good judgment because the process itself is a challenge of using discovery to change your life. What you do with the discovery defines the quality of your judgment.
Many people think making a mistake is a type of critical or negative judgment. However, many individuals have learned good judgment by learning from their negative judgments. Understanding how to turn negative errors into “good” mistakes is a step towards being successful.
If you understand that you have made an error in life and have learned from it, you then have positively used the error to benefit yourself. In the case of addiction, you can learn to understand how you got to the point of addiction and use it to ensure your future self won't have to deal with addiction.
Confusion happens with good judgment and bad judgment when alternate substances are introduced into the mix. Cognitive reasoning gets confused or fuzzy when other substances influence your decision-making. Addiction can turn potentially positive decisions into less-than-stellar choices. Sometimes, your mindset can even remove the options showing good judgment when you're under the influence.
To overcome this negative outcome is to eliminate the source that is influencing cognitive reasoning. Therefore, undergoing a personal journey to better your life can be asking for help when you don’t want it.
Those who struggle with addiction don't always want to remove the substances. Maybe the substance is a way to cope with life. However, once they experience life without addiction and find the right resources and guidance, they find their cognitive reasoning is influenced in a positive direction. Their judgment comes back to them, and their choices become better.
If you struggle with an addiction, you may have difficulty prioritizing your problems, which leads to difficulty in making the right choice. This is a conflict on its own, and being addicted to any type of substance can create this uncertainty.
If you have already decided that you want to have more control over your judgment, then you’re already on the right path to success. However, it takes time, dedication, and continuous focus to solve problems that the former you may have never been able to solve.
Your judgment influences all of your daily activities. Decisions can be smaller or bigger, but your cognitive reasoning is what decides whether your choices are good or bad. If you want to gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of yourself, addressing negative concepts or choices in your life is a good start. Parents understand that setting boundaries and tools for their children helps prevent the bad decisions that lead to addiction. Undergoing treatment helps identify good cognitive reasoning.
Those who struggle with substance use may know they are making poor judgment calls. However, those around them may not understand that they are trying to cope with the struggle rather than identify how it is a primary cause of their pain.
Those who have a loved one struggling with addiction need to understand addiction is not an overnight thing. It is a challenging process and should not be looked upon as bad judgment, but rather as a cry for help. If you or someone you love struggles with substance use, you may not understand the positive or negative judgment calls they make. Reaching out to a counselor or therapist can help give you insight into substance abuse. Most substances chemically change the way the brain thinks and lead to damages to cognitive reasoning. It’s vital that, if you are influenced by substances, you get help as soon as possible. It’s time you take your life into your own hands and choose to learn the difference between good and bad judgment. It can make a world of difference for your path to recovery. Learn more from us at NorthStar Transitions. Call us at (303) 558-6400.
