Separating Your Identity From Your Addiction

You are human. You are unique. However, addiction can limit your ability to recognize yourself or cause your identity to alter. You start seeing from a different, less clear perspective. Most people will take class, gender, or nationality as the fundamental building blocks of their identity, but many individuals who struggle with addiction may unintentionally make their addiction into their identity.

When addiction sets in, your identity may feel like it's shifting. For long as you've known, addiction has been a core part of you. It's time to consider speaking to someone before it overthrows the real you. When addiction takes hold of your core being, your identity becomes reconstructed. To fix that reconstructed image of yourself, identifying the struggles of addiction and learning how to separate from them can begin the process of rebuilding your true identity.

The Building Blocks of Identification

Initially, all of us are embedded with fundamental building blocks that form our perception of ourselves and our identity. Various factors influence our initial identities, such as early childhood development programs or physical activities.

When you're suffering from addiction and it becomes part of your identity, its severity escalates. Addiction happens when substance use becomes out of control, and change becomes difficult. Over the course of an addiction, you may have started to apply the labels of addiction to yourself, to a point where you know nothing about your identity, other than your addiction. If you don’t know how to identify parts of addiction, working to educate yourself on substance use disorders can help you separate your identity from the disorder.

Addiction brings bouts of confusion, instability, and pain. These feelings may even fuel the addiction to higher-risk levels. Your identity may feel lost, only understood as part of the addiction. Taking on these struggles alone is hard, but you're not alone. There are 5.1 million people that have reported struggles with addiction. 

Identity and Perception

You may feel that you are gradually losing your identity to the addiction. However, there is hope. Your value is not lost; it's just obscured by your struggle. You have gone down a rabbit hole, and you need some guidance to get back out. You can find the right guidance, and understand the aspects of drug and alcohol use, instead of letting the addiction become a part of your identity.

Your identity and addiction should not be intertwined. Compassionate professionals can help you think of your addiction as separate from your identity. If you feel your addiction is the only thing that makes you who you are, adjusting your perspective into something different is your first step towards healing.

You deserve to embrace an identity that is free from addiction. You just need the right guidance to lift the veil and help you see your true identity. Living without alcohol and/or other substances can boost your comfort, creativity, and responsibilities. You are not an addiction, and your identity isn't defined by the addiction, either.

The Rabbit Hole of Addiction

In this day and age, there are many organizations that can help you understand the difficulties that come with addiction. With substance use, the brain and body are under different levels of stress, but both are assaulted by the influence of the substance.

Once those substances are removed from the body, you can start to heal naturally. The healing that comes with addiction recovery helps you reconsider your identity and shift your mindset out of that rabbit hole.

You may start to notice yourself question your past, present, future, or even your outlook on life, but that’s all part of the process. Through the process of addiction treatment and recovery, you start to increase your cognitive abilities. You begin to focus on the actions of deliberate thinking, instead of being overly receptive to your impulses.

When this change in perception begins in recovery, no longer will you have to fuel yourself with pain and suffering. You can be guided toward rediscovering yourself through rehabilitation. Addiction recovery helps you form a new identity free from substances that can deliver you into a fruitful future.

The First Step of Recovery and a Fresh Identity

Sometimes it is difficult for many people to understand the first part of recovery is the proverbial journey. It takes one step to get going on that journey, but it's a long path with many twists and turns. Your recovery journey may have challenges along the way, but many people care about you and your progress, and that will make all the difference in your success. 

Your addiction is not your identity, and there is a way to free yourself from it and reform your identity. You can be proud of who you are and what you offer, but it takes that first step of personal liberation and strength to acknowledge the addiction before any healing can begin.

Many people suffer from addiction and question their identities in life. At NorthStar Transitions, the individuals who struggle with addiction can find guidance and a healing hand with quality addiction treatment and recovery programs. The caring and compassionate guidance our team gives each person that walks through our door can help give you hope for life. You can reform your identity and eliminate addiction with the help of our team. The first step of reclaiming your identity, and your whole life, is recognizing and acknowledging the signs of needing help. NorthStar Transitions believes your addiction covers up the real you that’s always been there. You don’t have to be defined by addiction. You can learn how to separate yourself from addiction and find a new meaning for yourself and your life with our help. If you struggle with identifying yourself, or you need help with addiction, reach out to us at (303) 558-6400.

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