Sex Addiction Recovery Strategy
Get Ready
12-step recovery from any negative behavior is a process. Many people fail and return to old habits because they tried to white knuckle through each day. For addiction recovery to truly work, you must come up with a plan to see you through the good days and the bad days. Understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. Be aware of what you want your life to look like. Set goals that lead you to achieve your best life. Be aware of what types of settings, or people, may lead you to stray from these goals. When you have a plan in place to assist you on the path to recovery, it will help you achieve recovery.
Mission Statement
Come up with a statement for your recovery. If you struggle with alcohol addiction, your mission statement may be staying sober each day. Part of your mission may be getting to know the sober you again. Your mission may be forgiving yourself for past behaviors. Your mission statement should be something you can think about and use in your 12-step recovery process.
Identify Your Purpose
Why are you taking this journey on the recovery path? What motivates you to stay sober? Think about what will help you focus as you understand and overcome problematic behaviors. For some, your purpose may be to preserve your relationship with family members. For others, your purpose may be to better your overall health and well-being. Whatever it is, make it meaningful.
Identify Your Legacy
Your legacy is what you will be remembered for as you move through life. How do you want people to think of you? If you ultimately want to be remembered as being a helpful individual, will engaging in problematic or addictive behaviors contribute to this? Consider the importance of your life. We all have value; take the time to identify what yours is.
Identify Past Triumphs and Strengths
What has worked for you in the past when faced with temptation? Recovery is an ongoing process, and using some of the triumphs and distractions that have worked for you before can help you today. Think of a time when the pull towards a behavior was strong, but you were ultimately able to resist. For example, you drove past your favorite adult video store or casino on the way home from work, but instead of going in, you decided to go to the gym and work out. A triumph may be quite simple. Instead of going to a party you were invited to attend, you stayed home and watched a Netflix marathon. Know what your strengths are. Try to remember how these successes made you feel.
Use Awareness to Stay on the Path
Recovery is an everyday process. Be aware of what your triggers are so that you can avoid them to stay on the path. For most people, being around old friends who continue to engage in destructive behaviors can erode their own resistance. If you are new to recovery, avoiding old family dramas so that you can remain in recovery may be necessary. Be aware of your challenges, knowing they are not shameful. When you are aware of events that have led to your setbacks before, you can move forward knowing what you can tolerate and what you cannot.
Set Practical and Meaningful Goals
When you have identified what your goal is for your life, you can begin to come up with a plan to achieve them. Of course, at first, the main achievement will be to stay in recovery. Setting other small goals is important as well. If you are out of work, set a goal to apply to five jobs each week. Find a place to volunteer if that helps you achieve your purpose. For many, especially in the beginning stages of recovery, simply getting out of bed and taking a shower is a practical goal for the day. Although the initial achievements may seem small at first, understand that these small triumphs will help you to attain bigger achievements in the future.
Self-Care to Keep Your Sobriety Intact
While in recovery, practicing self-care is a necessity. You need to put yourself first. The stresses of everyday life can become overpowering for many people in recovery. Practice awareness and know your limits. You are not being selfish by putting your sobriety first.
Recovery is like a house of cards. If you do not put your sobriety first, everything else will come crashing down with it. Without sobriety, you cannot end up where you want to be in life. If this means skipping a family gathering because you are just too stressed to handle social interaction, it is okay. Maybe this means going to an extra counseling session or meeting during the week. Practicing self-care is important to your recovery process. Addiction recovery is an ongoing process. Practicing these 7 Steps will help you to power up your recovery.
D.J. Burr is a licensed mental health counselor, behavioral addiction specialist, and certified clinical trauma professional. He has over a decade of experience working with individuals suffering from addictions. His primary focus is working with those with process addictions, including sexual addiction, porn addiction, history of infidelity, problem spending and debting, and internet/social media addiction.
If you or someone you love is experiencing a process addiction, give D.J. a call to discuss how individual and group therapy may be helpful.
www.djburr.com 206-458-2556
12-step recovery from any negative behavior is a process. Many people fail and return to old habits because they tried to white knuckle through each day. For addiction recovery to truly work, you must come up with a plan to see you through the good days and the bad days. Understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. Be aware of what you want your life to look like. Set goals that lead you to achieve your best life. Be aware of what types of settings, or people, may lead you to stray from these goals. When you have a plan in place to assist you on the path to recovery, it will help you achieve recovery.
Mission Statement
Come up with a statement for your recovery. If you struggle with alcohol addiction, your mission statement may be staying sober each day. Part of your mission may be getting to know the sober you again. Your mission may be forgiving yourself for past behaviors. Your mission statement should be something you can think about and use in your 12-step recovery process.
Identify Your Purpose
Why are you taking this journey on the recovery path? What motivates you to stay sober? Think about what will help you focus as you understand and overcome problematic behaviors. For some, your purpose may be to preserve your relationship with family members. For others, your purpose may be to better your overall health and well-being. Whatever it is, make it meaningful.
Identify Your Legacy
Your legacy is what you will be remembered for as you move through life. How do you want people to think of you? If you ultimately want to be remembered as being a helpful individual, will engaging in problematic or addictive behaviors contribute to this? Consider the importance of your life. We all have value; take the time to identify what yours is.
Identify Past Triumphs and Strengths
What has worked for you in the past when faced with temptation? Recovery is an ongoing process, and using some of the triumphs and distractions that have worked for you before can help you today. Think of a time when the pull towards a behavior was strong, but you were ultimately able to resist. For example, you drove past your favorite adult video store or casino on the way home from work, but instead of going in, you decided to go to the gym and work out. A triumph may be quite simple. Instead of going to a party you were invited to attend, you stayed home and watched a Netflix marathon. Know what your strengths are. Try to remember how these successes made you feel.
Use Awareness to Stay on the Path
Recovery is an everyday process. Be aware of what your triggers are so that you can avoid them to stay on the path. For most people, being around old friends who continue to engage in destructive behaviors can erode their own resistance. If you are new to recovery, avoiding old family dramas so that you can remain in recovery may be necessary. Be aware of your challenges, knowing they are not shameful. When you are aware of events that have led to your setbacks before, you can move forward knowing what you can tolerate and what you cannot.
Set Practical and Meaningful Goals
When you have identified what your goal is for your life, you can begin to come up with a plan to achieve them. Of course, at first, the main achievement will be to stay in recovery. Setting other small goals is important as well. If you are out of work, set a goal to apply to five jobs each week. Find a place to volunteer if that helps you achieve your purpose. For many, especially in the beginning stages of recovery, simply getting out of bed and taking a shower is a practical goal for the day. Although the initial achievements may seem small at first, understand that these small triumphs will help you to attain bigger achievements in the future.
Self-Care to Keep Your Sobriety Intact
While in recovery, practicing self-care is a necessity. You need to put yourself first. The stresses of everyday life can become overpowering for many people in recovery. Practice awareness and know your limits. You are not being selfish by putting your sobriety first.
Recovery is like a house of cards. If you do not put your sobriety first, everything else will come crashing down with it. Without sobriety, you cannot end up where you want to be in life. If this means skipping a family gathering because you are just too stressed to handle social interaction, it is okay. Maybe this means going to an extra counseling session or meeting during the week. Practicing self-care is important to your recovery process. Addiction recovery is an ongoing process. Practicing these 7 Steps will help you to power up your recovery.
D.J. Burr is a licensed mental health counselor, behavioral addiction specialist, and certified clinical trauma professional. He has over a decade of experience working with individuals suffering from addictions. His primary focus is working with those with process addictions, including sexual addiction, porn addiction, history of infidelity, problem spending and debting, and internet/social media addiction.
If you or someone you love is experiencing a process addiction, give D.J. a call to discuss how individual and group therapy may be helpful.
www.djburr.com 206-458-2556
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