Having to live with an addiction is very hard not only on those who are suffering from that disease but also for the people that care and love them. It can be a long and windy road to walk through and isolation can become the only witness to progress or failure. Nevertheless, being able to acknowledge the need for help, and recognize the status of the disease in our heads can make a big difference when going through recovery.
For some people, it’s a journey that simply never ends. Even if some successfully go through the treatment and then keep to themselves and their newly regained loved ones. For others, the process of rehabilitation turns from being a self-healing process to a sincere will to heal and help others. The ability to feel empathy is perhaps one of the best assets we can have as human beings. And showing that empathy towards those who might feel alone, in despair or completely unwanted, can and will make a huge positive impact in their life.
Here are 5 reasons why to give back while in recovery:
While Helping Others We Help Ourselves
As ideological and romantic as it sounds it’s the truth. By empathizing with what others are going through only gives us higher, more profound and complex insights to our own problems. Understanding and being able to grasp how others might feel while going through a rough patch is the founding stone for a great construction of a life.
Opening our hearts and minds to different situations where we’re not directly involved and yet we can relate, also turns people from selfish or self-centered to selfless and humble. Which within the time we get to discover those elements define in a way what being a good person means. Helping others will help you without a doubt.
We Leave Our Problems Aside for A Moment
Our issues won’t just fix themselves, but being able to focus our minds on someone else’s problem can be very therapeutic for us. When we’re dealing with an addiction and also while we’re going through recovery there is a mix of negative feelings that we can’t control. When helping others, those negative feelings fade away only to be replaced by pride, satisfaction and knowing we can make a difference and we can help others because we can relate to them.
We Can Make New Friends
While in recovery there’s something that is rarely seen in any other social scenario: We meet people who have very similar problems like us, are trying hard to deal with them like us, and are being honest with themselves and the group. This sort of connection is not often found in our everyday life. Which is why it’s easier to bond with them because we know they’re not likely to judge us since they’re going through something very similar.
It is rather usual to bond with other patients, and this bond can last a lifetime. It is amazing that something so beautiful can develop when we are selfless and devoted to becoming better people and reach sobriety.
Self-Growth and Self-Esteem Goes Up
By helping others, not only are we helping ourselves in the long run, but we’re also showing how valuable we can be and how much of a difference we can make in the world if we choose to. Once we start seeing results from what we’ve been doing, the people that have been benefiting from our help will appreciate it and hold us to a very high standard, which automatically leads to an acknowledgment of our new way of being and inherently improves our self-esteem and worth.
It’s Healthy!
Several studies have shown that there actually is a chemical and biological reason why we feel good when we help. It can help to relieve stress, makes us feel better about ourselves and our lives, happier, motivated. And who doesn’t like to feel that way? Our health overall will improve, our sleeping pattern will tend to normalize when combined with a healthy lifestyle. Our self-esteem will also improve because we will be able to see ourselves as something better than before.
There are almost an infinite amount of reasons why giving back in recovery is a great thing. Learning the value of forgiveness takes us a long way, and when we ditch the blame game, we realize that what we did for our own recovery can be done for someone else’s. And that’s the beauty of it. Keeping a positive attitude during the whole process is also a key element to succeed as it plays a very important role in recovery. Having an optimistic and yet realistic approach will lead us to realize that no matter how vast the darkness, we must all provide our own light.
If you liked this article and would like to ask a question, or simply might have another couple benefits of giving back while in recovery, feel free to leave a comment below.