Embrace Your Inner Introvert: Why it Helps Recovery
Recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is difficult for anyone. However, it may be really hard for a person who is an introvert. The demands on a person can be difficult and it may feel like it works against you. Learn some tips for how to handle introversion in recovery.
Accepting Yourself
Many people see their introversion as something shameful. In a society that expects so much of people, it can be hard to feel valued in quiet, contemplative spaces. Introverts bring a hidden power people are only just realizing. Extroversion can be hard for an introvert, any amount can be draining on a daily basis. Trying to fake it may work for while but using substances to cope is not sustainable long term. You don’t have to live by other people’s measures of personal success but, as an introvert, you may feel uncomfortable in groups of people or around others and need to find ways of adjusting. This may trigger you if you don’t so it helps to find others who get it and support your recovery and introverted qualities.
Embrace Rehab
Rehab is a place to center yourself around others who get you. Compounding the anxiety and stress brought on in addiction to having to share all those feelings and experiences in rehab can be difficult. With professional help, you will be able to get past these barriers that may keep you from getting healthy:
- Do your research before committing to a place
- Prepare to be honest and admit up front that you need help. Your honesty can encourage someone who was afraid to speak up about being shy
- Take advantage of free time. If you are in rehab, it allows you to designate time every day for yourself. Pack a journal to write or a sketchbook. Make sure to make time just for you
Find Support
Social support is an important part of a lifelong recovery. As an introvert, forging ties with others who get it are also important to your healing. During formal treatment and support group work, take time to seek out like-minded people. Congratulate people when they open up at meetings and practice empathy like you would want.
Find Good Aftercare Options
While a professional rehab program provides a solid foundation, aftercare is essential to building a fulfilling life outside of rehab. Many conventional aftercare methods can be a source of anxiety for introverts. Most involve group therapy that may be stressful. There are ways to participate in aftercare that don’t include 12-step groups. In-person meetings may not work so online options are becoming more available. One-on-one talk therapy provides a good outlet to work through feelings and cope with roadblocks in recovery.
The biggest thing to remember is to keep recovery at the front of your focus. You will have good and bad days. Just be patient with yourself. Part of this is coming to terms with knowing not two recovery processes are alike. You will find your path if you keep seeking and asking for what you need.
For more than 25 years, Palmetto Addiction Recovery Center has been devoted to helping those who are struggling, to find serenity and recover. With a focus on holistic treatment for the physical, emotional, and spiritual, our program effectively rebuilds and heals what has been broken by addiction. For information on our addiction treatment program in Louisiana, call us today: 866-848-3001