Addiction is an incredibly disruptive disease. It damages your view of the world, your desire for a better future, and the dynamics between you and your family. If you feel that addiction has made your life completely uncontrollable, finding hope can be challenging.
What is the power of hope in your recovery? Hope is much more than a pie in the sky view of what could be. The power of hope can be helpful in building a vision of the future you want. As you become aware of the damage caused by addiction, your focus on that hopeful future can be a wonderful place to focus and help you find the energy to fight through detox, work through treatment, and rebuild healthy connections. It will also make it much easier to see the hazards that may have tripped you up in the past.
Finding Your Power
Hope is about seeing what is possible. If you’ve been feeling hopeless, you may be dealing with underlying conditions that contributed to your addiction. Undiagnosed depression can be made easier to manage with stimulants that can lead to dangerous addiction.
Many drugs also bathe the brain in dopamine, which feels wonderful in the moment but damages your ability to generate dopamine naturally. Serotonin levels may also be naturally low, or you may be genetically predisposed to being unable to use the serotonin you generate. Those with low levels of serotonin may suffer from
- anxiety and depression
- a strong desire for carbohydrates
- exhaustion and headache
- high levels of emotional sensitivity
Targeted prescription medications can help to boost your ability to use serotonin, but many who experiment with illegal drugs may find themselves addicted to the sense of joy and positivity that elevated serotonin levels bring.
Hope and Detox
It may take a big life jolt to get you into detox. You may get into legal trouble for possession, DUI, or criminal activity to raise cash. You may have a relationship fall apart or find that your family can no longer trust or depend on you. Finding out that you are a burden is a hard lesson, but knowing that you want to be there for your loved ones can be enough of a vision for your future to get you into detox. It should be noted that detox is critical to getting the drugs out of your system safely.
Detox should never be undertaken alone; symptoms of detox can include hazards including
- irregular heart rate
- radical changes in blood pressure
- extreme nausea and dehydration
- seizures
You may have a loved one who is willing to help you detox. Avoid this. You will not be in control of what you do and say depending on what toxins are leaving your system. Your physical health may be at risk. Even if you survive it, you may destroy the relationship.
Hope and Treatment
Treatment can teach you many things about yourself and the world. You may learn that you’re not alone. You may learn how to ask for help. Whether you use in-patient treatment or work through the process on an out-patient basis, you will learn coping skills for the tough days and how to reach out and celebrate the good days. Addiction changes the brain. Your neural pathways are targeted toward gaining access to the drug.
Retraining your brain will take time and focus. In the event that you start to lose hope about your success, keeping an eye on the vision for your life outside of treatment can help you find those goals again. Quality treatment is about finding a way to be comfortable in your body and brain. In addition to allowing your brain chemistry to reset, you may find that you have been dealing with undiagnosed mental health challenges.
No matter what conditions you need to overcome as you work through treatment, part of your growth will remind you that you can always respect the strength it took to get through detox and treatment. Hope is personal. Your future may include detox, treatment, personal counseling, and family counseling. No matter what else happens, your goals and visions are worth the work. Ready to get started? Call us today at 844-639-8371.