Overcoming Addiction and Your Past: Why Forgiveness is Important in Recovery

Forgiveness is part of overcoming addiction. You have to unload your defenses and reservations, and open your heart to forgiving yourself and others. This is part of healing. This is part of your recovery journey.

Addiction is difficult. It has many faces, and the struggles are different from person to person, family to family.

Whether it’s addiction to substances such as drugs or alcohol, or addiction to certain activities such as gambling, it is never easy. For the family of someone who has an addiction, life may have been tumultuous and chaotic.

Somewhere along the way, you as an addict may have hurt other people. Disappointed them. In fact, you may have lied to them and betrayed them not only once, but multiple times. While you were on active addiction, you may have hurt and neglected people along the way. Ruined relationships. Broken trust.

However, now that you are in recovery, you have to learn to seek forgiveness and mend these relationships. Further than that, you also have to learn to forgive yourself and forgive others. This is part of overcoming addiction and your journey towards life-long recovery.

Overcoming Your Addiction With Forgiveness

Addiction may turn you into a stranger to your family and friends. In fact, addiction may turn you into a monster towards people who care for you the most.

However, it’s important to learn to forgive. This is part of your recovery. By letting go of grudges and making amends with yourself and with others, you can truly move on. You can truly turn a new leaf unburdened by your past.

Of course, this is easier said than done. However, it takes a lot of courage and commitment to be able to do this. There may be deep wounds that are hard to uncover. These will take time. But by learning the things you learned while in a treatment center like Bridges of Hope, you will learn to take the right steps towards forgiving yourself and others, and overcoming addiction for good.

Why Practice Forgiveness in Recovery?

By practicing forgiveness, you free yourself of the mental and emotional burden that can hamper your growth and recovery. You also clear your conscience and start healing.

This will then allow you to move on with your life with less stress and anxiety.

While letting go of the past doesn’t mean you they are not important, it allows you to just put things behind you. Learn their lessons, but don’t let them weigh you down.

By taking time to reconnect and make amends with people you’ve hurt in the past, you become more content with your life. Your heart will feel lighter. You start to surround yourself with positive people.

Doing this will also help lessen any negativity that may trigger you and therefore make your recovery harder.

Asking for forgiveness and forgiving yourself and others may be difficult, but know that you can take small steps. These will then direct you to real change. And real peace.

Where Therapy and Counseling Come In

At Bridges of Hope, we provide all the tools and services that allow individuals to overcoming addiction based on their own needs. We also provide therapy and counseling throughout every step of their treatment and recovery journey.

With this, we can help support them, especially as they prepare to take on the challenges of life anew, this time without their addictions.

We encourage people to rebuild relationships and at least practice letting go of past grudges.

If you or someone you know needs help with addiction, talk to us at Bridges of Hope.