Christopher Robin, the beloved childhood icon who is famous for his furry friends who live in the Hundred Acre Wood, once gave an encouraging sentiment to his best friend, Winnie The Pooh. He said, “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
You’re Braver Than You Believe
To be brave means to be “ready to face and endure danger or pain”. You aren’t likely to face danger in recovery or treatment. However, since your brain has learned to program the use of harmful substances or reliance upon harmful behaviors as a matter of life or death, you might feel like you’re entering danger by letting them go. Recovery can be painful. Treatment can involve confronting a lot of painful memories and emotions. In addition, detox from drugs and alcohol can also be painful. Many people retreat from the prospect of treatment because they are not ready to face what lies ahead.
You’re Stronger Than You Seem
Due to a pervasive stigma surrounding mental health, many people see asking for help and going to treatment as a sign of weakness. It takes an incredible amount of strength to admit you are suffering and need help. Strength is defined as “A good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing.” The minute you realize you can no longer live life the way you are living it and decide something has to be done, even though you aren’t sure what, where, when, or how, you are demonstrating an extremely beneficial quality- one that is going to save your life.
You’re Smarter Than You Think
There’s a saying in recovery that goes, keep it simple, stupid. People tend to get “too smart” for recovery. They take something remarkably simple and make it really complicated. Recovery is complex. Addiction and other mental health conditions twist the body and brain up in a peculiar way which requires many different methods of healing to undo. Allowing yourself to be “unsmart” enough to be smart in recovery actually takes a lot of smarts. Many of the concepts in recovery are vast and philosophical. Feelings, for example, are just thoughts and emotional experiences we have. You can’t touch hope, faith, and wisdom. You have to learn to accept as fact things that many other people deem to be myth.
LEAD Recovery Center sees the potential in each client. Our programs are designed to encourage leadership and mentorship by building confidence and strength. For information on our extended care programs, call 1-800-380-0012.
