Why Addiction Is About Connection: Twelve Step Rehab and Recovery

Addiction is About Connection

You Can't Get & Stay Sober Alone

Addiction is a complicated demon, but research is coming to a common sense conclusion. If you are unhappy with your life, you are more likely to reach out for something to take away or distract you from feeling the mental anguish and emotional pain. Addiction is often the unfortunate result if the body/mind engageslong enough in chemical escape mechanisms to make a behavioral habit. Addiction is about connection.

Emotional pain of addiction

A good question to consider is what is at the root of the mental and emotional and also perhaps physical discomfort. A quick look into childhood can shed light on this. Did you grow up in a safe and caring environment, or was your family home one of conflict, drama and turmoil? Did you feel you were walking on eggshells to minimize the possibility of further arguments or maybe even physical or emotional abuse? Were you emotionally neglected? Were you poor? Maybe your family appeared to have all the accouterments of success but still you were ignored by parents who were unavailable or lacked empathy and understanding. Was alcohol and addiction present in your childhood home? If you didn’t experience a positive sense of safety, love, caring and connection to your family group as a child, chances are you grew up feeling isolated, scared and alone. This is a very difficult place to be and it is often the longing to be connected that is at the root of the desire to take away the pain by drinking or drugging.

Addiction recovery healing through connection

The good news is, there is hope and there is a solution: The Twelve Step program shows you a way to really learn how to love yourself, to be kind and gentle to yourself, and to parent yourself in the healthy way you didn’t receive as a child. As you go through Twelve Step rehab at Serenity Vista you will be given the tools for developing healthy self love, and for reliance on a higher power. When you learn how to do this, feeling safe comes more easily over time, and it becomes much easier to reach out to others and create genuine bonds, connections and community for yourself.