Are you wanting to begin the road to recovery from your addiction? Are you tired of letting a substance control your life and the decisions you make? If so, then you need to learn all about self-acceptance and recovery.

If you’re on a road to recovery, then self-acceptance can be the most complicated part of the initial process. It requires us to soak up our pride and confirm what brought us to where we are now. 

Fortunately, it can be done! See below for an in-depth guide on self-acceptance and why it’s necessary for your recovery. We also include some pointers for achieving self-acceptance.

What Is Self-Acceptance?

Psychology experts tack self-acceptance as one of the most essential stages to any mental or physical recovery. To make a significant change in your lives, we first have to accept the place that you’re starting from.

People can accept the positive aspects of themselves just fine, but accepting their struggles or deficiencies is an entirely different story.

That’s what true self-acceptance is all about: accepting the good and the bad, however ugly the bad might be.

Too many addicts go about their lives running from the truth. They know they have a problem and may even want to make a change. But their own self-image prevents them from igniting that spark.

By never accepting their addiction, they think they avoid the title of becoming an addict or substance abuser. However, just the opposite proves to be true.

Without being able to accept their current state, they’re unopened to the help others try to give them. After all, someone can’t help pull you up from a ledge if you don’t reach out to grab the hand they extend to you.

Make no mistake about it, accepting your shortcomings isn’t easy. But doing so will help you get to the true reasoning behind your addiction, thus promoting recovery in the process.

Why Self-Acceptance Is Necessary

Unfortunately, self-acceptance and recovery don’t happen overnight. They take a lengthened amount of intention and hard work to accomplish.

That said, you can’t have one without the other. See below for several reasons why self-acceptance is a key part of any successful recovery process.

1. It Prompts Recovery

Envision yourself walking up to the gate of a mansion. On the other side of the gate, you can see a long driveway that reaches the top of a hill with a beautiful mansion at the top.

To start walking up the driveway that reaches the mansion, you first need to open the gate. Only you have the code, so only you have the ability to remove the object in your way and begin your climb.

In that metaphor we just laid out, the driveway represents the road to recovery and the gate represents the mental block that many people face when accepting their addiction.

If you simply enter the gate’s code (achieve self-acceptance), then you can begin the road to recovery. If not, you’ll never truly be able to start your recovery.

2. Hit the Refresh Button

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone wakes up one day and realizes that they’ve fallen far from the path they initially set out on. It’s how you react to that realization that matters.

Self-acceptance allows you to hit the refresh button on your life. It cleans the slate. Once you accept your struggles and addiction, you can begin working towards a new, happy, and sober life.

Once you achieve self-acceptance, you’ll finally be able to come to peace with your previous mistakes. One day, you’ll have a testimony with others who are in the same situation you’re in right now!

3. Helps You Gain Perspective

Don’t get it twisted, self-acceptance is not you coming to grips with your addiction and saying “this is how it will always be”. 

Self-acceptance is about accepting that you have an addiction and that you need to make a change. That change can’t occur without the realization that you need help and can’t go this road alone.

When you accept your anxiety and struggles, you’ll gain a perspective that you’d previously been preventing yourself from seeing. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The sober life you’ve been wanting will finally feel like a reality.

How Can I Achieve Self-Acceptance?

Now that you’ve seen why self-acceptance and recovery go hand in hand, it’s time to start down the road to recovery.

But how can you begin implementing self-acceptance into your life? Where do you start? Here are a few thoughts that you can use to challenge yourself and gradually create constructive self-acceptance.

• I’m not a failure, I’m working towards a better tomorrow.
• One day, I’ll be a source of inspiration for others who share my struggles.
• I’ve made mistakes, but I can choose to own them and work hard to make sure they don’t happen again.
• I need help, but first, I have to accept the struggles that professionals can help me work through.
• My strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures have made me who I am today. They’re nothing to be ashamed of.
• I’m out to correct myself, but I will never condemn myself.

Begin Your Road to Self-Acceptance and Recovery Today

Now that you have seen a guide on why self-acceptance and recovery are important, as well as how to get there, we hope this article helps kick things in motion.

Be sure to read this blog for more articles on how to find a first health rehab in San Diego.

To take your first steps, please reach out to us via phone at 858-302-4570 and we look forward to speaking with you soon!