After a lifestyle centered on drug and alcohol abuse, change to sober living can be scary. This is why many people who undergo addiction treatment and rehabilitation have many fears in recovery. At times, these fears can cause them to be discouraged and disillusioned, causing relapse and a deeper slump into addiction.
These fears in recovery, although natural and understandable, can sabotage your new-found life in recovery. It doesn’t have to derail this new path you’ve carved out for yourself, though.
Here are six common fears in recovery and what you can do about them.
Six Common Fears in Recovery
1. Fear of Not Being Enough. This is a paralyzing fear that keeps you from doing what needs to be done to keep your sobriety. You feel that you don’t really have what it takes to keep up a recovered life. Such fears in recovery, although mental, can keep you from staying true to your commitment to sobriety. And once you’ve set your mind on this fear, it’s hard for anyone or anything else to convince you otherwise.
How to handle: Stepping out of rehab and into a new and different life can be a hugely sobering experience. You have to give yourself time to learn and get used to this new life. You can’t expect things to be easy, but the fact that you have taken the first step and have completed rehab shows that you do have what it takes and that you’re worth this new life.
2. Fear of Mistakes. While you were in rehab, you’re in a safe, drug- and alcohol-free environment surrounded by your counselors and peers. Once you get out, you’re faced with the real world, with its many challenges. This puts a great deal or pressure on you, making you fear committing mistakes that may derail your progress and put your sobriety at risk.
Fear of making mistakes is one of the most common fears in recovery that many people experience, discouraging them from making a move and even pushing them to indeed commit blunders.
How to handle: Don’t be hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and just because you came from rehab doesn’t mean you’re not allowed mistakes too. What’s important is you learn from the mistakes you make and to always put your sobriety first. As long as you continue to commit to your life in recovery, things will fall into place.
3. Fear of loneliness. Now that you’re in recovery, you have a new life. This means you don’t have your old friends with you anymore, the people who you used to run around chasing highs won’t be there with you now. Letting your old life and old friends go can be big adjustments, but think about what you gain in return.
How to handle: It gets easier as time passes. You may feel lonely right now, without the people you used to hang out with before. But think about it this way. This new life in recovery is a great opportunity to reconnect with your family, try to fix ties, and even meet new people. And besides, you have your peers and counselors from rehab to help you out.
4. Fear of failing. Everyone fears failure. As a recovering addict, this can be one of the biggest fears in recovery that many experience. You’re afraid to relapse, to let people down, to let yourself down, to go back to your old life. You have so many fears, but if you let them get the best of you, you’re depriving yourself of room to grow and be happy.
How to handle: You’ve done it. You’ve finished rehab. That was the first step, and that alone is a triumph. Take each day as it comes, as see each day as a triumph. Learn to celebrate small victories and have an attitude of gratitude to remind you how far you’ve come and what a beautiful life you’re not living.
5. Fear of the unknown. It’s natural to fear what you don’t know. Now that you’re in recovery and living a new life with new choices, you may feel like you don’t know what to expect. You may be afraid of what the future holds. This is understandable. It’s natural for people to fear what they don’t know.
How to handle: Have a goal. Take each day as it comes, but still have a daily goal in mind to help you through. Having a direction in life allows you to look forward to what life holds everyday. This also gives you some form of control in what life brings.
6. Fear of feeling. When you were in active addiction, you use drugs or alcohol to tune out the world. Now that you’re sober, all the feelings will come back. You’re now in the real world, with its real challenges and this time, there’s no drug or alcohol to turn to for escape. There may be problems that you may now face, and many of these problems would have been brought about by your days (or years) in active addiction.
How to handle: This is the best time to check out everything life has to offer. See this as an opportunity and an adventure. After all, this is the best time to live because you’re feeling everything. Be present in everyday, and find things you love to do. Find what you are passionate about and find joy in them.
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