Addiction Recovery Basics

Hi, my name is Bill Urell, from Addiction Recovery Basics and today I’d like to talk to you about messages that you give yourself. It may sound a little strange at first, but we all talk to ourselves. But what kind of message are you giving yourself to go throughout the day. Do you things like ‘I'm a loser’, ‘You stupid idiot’ and ‘why would anybody like me?’. If we repeat these types of messages to ourselves often enough they become true in our own mind. The fact is that once you learn these messages after repeating them over and over to yourself, you may have a hard time not believing They become generators of low self-esteem.

Words that often generate shaming messages are: should, must, and ought. If you’re saying things like’ I should've done better’, ‘I must do it perfectly’ then you are holding yourself to a very critical standard and that standard is your own.

A sobriety tip or skill that can be developed in addiction recovery, is changing the negative self talk into positive self talk. But first it is necessary to take a look at the patterns you are using. Challenge yourself. Are those messages in fact true? Probably not. If what you're saying to yourself is something he would not say to another person, why are you talking to your self that way? What is the payoff for beating yourself up and being so hard on yourself.

Once you've examined some of the negative messages you're giving yourself, the trick is to replace them with positive statements. You can work on changing your negative thoughts into positive ones by realizing that is only human to make some mistakes. Ask yourself how to important is it really? Do I have to do something about it right now? Repeating a positive messages to yourself over and over, and even out loud if needed. Program yourself in a positive way rather than a negative way.

One of the most difficult things for me still to this day is to accept a compliment for something I have done. This triggers old attitudes of low self-esteem, worthlessness and suspicion that someone wants something. To this day I have a mantra that I’ve developed that comes out automatically when somebody pays me a complimen. I simply say ‘thank you that makes me feel good’ then I shut up and leave it at that

Changing negative thoughts you have about yourself into positive ones takes a lot of effort and repetition. If you persist you will find yourself believing the positive thoughts instead of the negative ones. After all in addiction recovery, we're working to overcome our past and move forward into the future toward peacefulness, self-esteem and serenity.

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