When you are going through addiction recovery, self-esteem is a big part of what you will be working on. Sometimes it can feel like an impossible task to think that you will ever have the same level of confidence and well-being that you had before addiction. Especially when some pretty serious changes in your life may happen and tear you down. However, there are definitely ways to gain confidence and the ability to cope with stressful situations again. You just need to know where to start.
One of the biggest tools in this process is self-esteem or self-worth. Self-esteem is your ability to believe that you are an important person and your life matters in a positive way. When you have healthy self-esteem, you will be confident in your abilities and know that who you are is a good thing. In this piece, we will discuss why self-esteem is important during recovery.
Reasons Why Self Esteem Is Important during Recovery
Self-esteem Helps You Stay Motivated. When you do not have self-esteem, life can be hard, and many of your decisions are going to be made based on how they will affect you. When you are working on recovery, it is important to keep in mind that your decisions affect not just yourself but also your family and friends. If your self-esteem is very low, then it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that all of your problems belong only to yourself.
Self-esteem Helps You Stay Positive. When you have self-esteem that is healthy, you will be much more likely to feel good about your life and yourself. This will make it easier for you to focus on the good things that are happening around you. When you focus on the negative, it is easy for your problems to seem like a burden that stretches on endlessly. When you focus on the positive aspects of your life, it is easier to look at your problems as challenges instead, and this makes them much easier to handle.
Self-esteem Helps You Develop Good Boundaries. When you have trouble asserting yourself and knowing when to stand up for your rights, it is hard to get through life as smoothly as possible. When you have a problem with boundaries, it is easy to feel like you do not deserve certain things and that no one else should get them either. You may find that it is very easy to enable people or that you allow others to take advantage of you because you are afraid of standing up for yourself.
Self-esteem Helps You Know How to Communicate. When you do not like yourself, it is easy to make the assumption that other people do not like you either. This can cause you to feel stressed out and worried about how you are going to be perceived by others. When you have healthy self-esteem, it allows you to feel more relaxed and confident in your social interactions. This means that you will be able to handle things that come up in conversation and not be as worried about how you are going to deal with them.
Self-esteem Helps You Deal With Stressful Situations. When stress and tension are building up, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and have a hard time coping with the situation. This means that it is hard to get through difficult times when you do not have high self-esteem. It is possible that you will be able to handle stress better when you are working on improving your self-esteem.
Self Esteem Helps You Handle Loneliness. When you are constantly having trouble dealing with situations that make you feel lonely, it is easy to feel depressed and deal with problems in a negative way. If you are not able to deal with these feelings, then they are likely to cause you to isolate yourself and make the problem worse. Self-esteem can help you deal with loneliness in a positive way because it will help reduce your anxiety about other people and situations that could lead to this feeling.
Self-esteem Helps You Deal With Situations That Make You Feel Inferior. If you do not want to feel inferior to anyone else, then it is important to have high self-esteem. This can help you through all sorts of situations that could make you feel bad about yourself or like you do not measure up. It may be hard for you to be confident in your abilities if you are always comparing yourself to other people and feeling like they are better than you.
All in all, self-esteem is a very important part of recovery, and it is something that should not be overlooked. With a little understanding, you can work towards improving your self-esteem and get the benefits that come along with it. If you need to improve your self-esteem, you can turn to some very helpful resources or call us at 833-680-0165. Our counselors are available 24 hours a day.