How to Manage Your Life If You Have an Addictive Personality

All too often, the life of an addict is a roller-coaster ride of bad behavior, suffered consequences,

denial, regret, recommitment, relapse…

Rinse and repeat.

After going on for years, if not decades, it ends in a predictably tragic manner.

If you have an addictive personality, it doesn’t have to end that way for you.

There are other options besides the roller coaster ride to nowhere.

But it is not going to be easy.

And at first, it won’t even be much fun.

Before moving on to productive solutions, you have to embrace two unavoidable realities:

*Your addiction is entirely your responsibility.

No matter whose fault it may be, you have to give up blame as a way of avoiding ultimate responsibility.

You can’t blame your parents, your friends, or your DNA. Responsibility avoidance never leads to recovery.

*Your recovery is entirely your responsibility.

At the end of the day, you are the only one who can make yourself better.

If you want the rehab to work, you need to find it within yourself to want to go.

Even the experts at places like HARP Drug Treatment Center would never try to compel you

to stay in a program that was not working for you.

You have to want to be there.

In fact, they will work with you to find the center that is right for you if theirs is not a good fit.

Others can help.

But you have to take responsibility.

A New Beginning

Imagine your favorite blanket made you itch to the point of needing medical care.

Now imagine that you go to the doctor and get the appropriate treatment that cleanses you

of that allergic attack.

As a reward, you decide to take a nice long nap and wrap up in the same old blanket that

caused the attack in the first place.

That is what many addicts do after treatment.

They go right back into the environments where they are vulnerable and fall back into the

same habits they were so desperate to quit.

The key is to orchestrate a truly new beginning.

“The important thing to remember is

that you need to surround yourself with

people who support your recovery,

not your addiction.”

This may very well be the hardest part of recovery.

If the only friends you have are drug users, you have to make new friends.

If all the places you used to go were drug hangouts, you have to find new places to be.

For some, the only way to do this is to move to a new city where they don’t know anyone.

Start with a new job and a new address, and most importantly, a new phone number and

email address so that the old bad influences will not know how to reach you.

These are extreme measures for extreme situations.

The important thing to remember is that you need to surround yourself with people who

support your recovery, not your addiction.

A Healthy Lifestyle

One of the best things you can do after rehab is to develop the habit of exercise and a

healthy diet.

Making changes for the better begins with developing a healthy body and mind.

The NIH puts it this way:

“Recovery from substance use also affects the body in other ways, including metabolism

(processing energy), organ function, and mental well-being. Proper nutrition may help

the healing process. Nutrients supply the body with energy. They provide substances

to build and maintain healthy organs and fight off infection.”

Due to the drugs, your body has taken a beating.

Even if you never take another illicit drug, your body cannot repair all of the damage.

“Managing your addictive personality

begins with taking full responsibility,

recognizing when it is time for a new

beginning, and redirecting triggers to

healthier lifestyle choices.”

Nutrition is not just a buzzword for the latest fad.

It is what your body needs for survival.

The good news is that an addictive personality can make the most of healthy eating

and exercise.

By definition, no addiction is good.

But one could do much worse than to be addicted to healthy eating and exercise.

It is similar to how some smokers manage to kick the habit by chewing gum.

They find a way to redirect the compulsive behavior.

Once you become aware of your triggers, you can redirect your responses to something

much less destructive.

Managing your addictive personality begins with taking full responsibility, recognizing

when it is time for a new beginning, and redirecting triggers to healthier lifestyle choices.

What are your favorite tips for managing your life if you have an addictive personality?

Share your thoughts and comments with us.