Putting The Pieces Together

If you keep on doing what you used to do, expect to get what you used to get.

06 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment

by Bill in Life Issues, Recovery, Therapy

We recently received a letter from a person who was detoxed at home, and who is sitting around feeling miserable and wondering when the symptoms of Post Acute Withdrawal are going to ease up.

There are two issues here.  First of all, it’s not uncommon for people to become depressed when they stop drinking or using other drugs.  They may even have been attempting to self-medicate  previously-existing problems with the drugs and/or alcohol.  In any case, quitting without support is likely to create feelings — both psychological and physical — that folks new to recovery are simply not equipped to handle alone.

There’s a saying, “When you keep on doing what you used to do, you’ll keep on getting what you used to get.”   This is akin to the well-known “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  What did we do when we were using?  We isolated.  Often we drank or drugged alone, or with people to whom we were able to relate only superficially due to our mutual conditions.  And, of course, every drunk and addict knows that feeling of  alone-ness while surrounded by other people.  Drunks and addicts isolate — emotionally, if not physically.

It therefore follows, as the night the day, that isolation is not a good thing for us.  It gives us too much time to feel sorry for ourselves, too much time to mull over old wrongs and resentments, too much time doing the same mental gymnastics we used to do, too much time to decide that if it doesn’t get any better than this, we might as well use.

If you’re sitting around home, down in the dumps,  get to a 12-step meeting, make some new friends, and begin to change your life.  If that doesn’t work, keep going anyway, but consider getting some professional help for your depression.