It would be best if you had friends or family members who understand your situation and genuinely care about seeing you succeed in your recovery journey. In addition, consider joining local support groups or seeking professional help from therapists or counselors if needed. If it is appropriate guilt, make an effort to change the behavior that causes you to feel the guilt.
Now you may find that you are equally critical of yourself and equally unforgiving. We hear a lot about the importance of forgiving those who have harmed us, but what about forgiving ourselves? Another exercise you can do to face your wrongs is to make alist of what your values are. Examine where your values came from (parents, other relatives, friends or society) and whichones you want to keep or discard. Then, think about which ones you have actedagainst in your life.
You can’t travel back in time and undo the past, but you can make a fresh start, and live a positive and meaningful life. It’s important to recognize that experiencing guilt and shame in recovery is a natural part of the healing process. Identify specific situations, thoughts, or memories that trigger feelings of guilt and shame. Many individuals in recovery also experience guilt and shame related to the impact of their behavior on their loved ones. It’s worth noting that accessing additional forms of professional and peer support does not mean that an individual’s existing network isn’t valuable.
This self-recrimination– and acceptance of the blame from other people – can overwhelm the person, because past mistakes cannot usually be undone. Shame is defined as “an overwhelming feeling of regret or sadness that a person feels because they know they have done something wrong“. Most addicts and alcoholics do not fully experience shame until they are in recovery. Shame is a feeling that can create quite a moral dilemma for the recovering addict/alcoholic. On one hand, when an individual is not constantly focused on the next drunk or the next high, feelings of responsibility for past misbehaviors is only natural. In fact, learning to take personal responsibility is an important part of recovery from addiction.
Talk about your recovery with your family, friends, or therapist — anyone who will listen without judgment. Talking about your journey helps you take back control of your life. Being open and honest about your feelings is a great way to process them and move on. Furthermore, breaking the cycle of guilt and shame in recovery and reconnecting with family, friends, and coworkers is essential for healing. Learning to accept that these people love you and that you’re part of a loving network can be hard, but is possible through therapy.
Addiction is a disease, and your experiences and actions were the symptoms. To discuss the connection between addiction and shame, it’s important to start working with an experienced psychotherapist or recovery coach for either individual or group therapy. Learning to view your mistakes as behaviors, not a reflection of your self-worth is necessary to break the cycle. Guilt is the painful admission that you have done something wrong, but that bad behavior doesn’t represent who you are as a person. Individuals feeling guilt can still recognize their positive qualities and see themselves in a good light.
Shame leads to the belief that there is something fundamentally flawed about you and that you’re powerless to change. Putting an end to the stigma and shame of addiction is basic guilt and shame in recovery to recovery. Shame, on the other hand, is a more pervasive and deeply rooted emotion. It relates to the individual’s sense of self and identity, rather than specific actions.