I am currently a facilitator at a sober living facility and I am constantly telling residence this advice and I live it: During our struggle and addiction, we woke up every morning and used every ounce of our energy and effort to maintain our addiction and make sure we obtained our substance. We did that same routine everyday, day in and day out. Though, we may have had short periods of time that we experienced dope sickness or the icky's, we never failed our addiction. So, if we use that same effort and energy and put it towards something positive like a career or college or a trade, we cannot fail!! We are strong and persevering people, us recovering addicts!! We have a tremendous amount of wisdom we have gained from life experiences along the way!! And damnit if we are not a part of history for helping change the world when it comes to our disorder that addiction is no longer criminalized but deemed as a disease and mental health disorder as well as substance use disorder. Have we not crawled thru the mud and out that mud puddle and appreciated every step we take in life and everyone around us can sense our second chance at life like energy that pours out our pores?! We are becoming some of the most artistic, driven and creative people that society is seeing now!! WE WILL NOT FAIL.
I like your initial comments about using one’s dedication to addiction to be successful in other life endeavors. When you see how creative and entrepreneurial some addicts are you start to think “dang, you have the demonstrated ability to be motivated and capable, brilliant at times. Now just redirect that energy”. Take the skills you’ve used to be successful in other parts of life and translate them to productive work. Even if your “success” was as an addict, there’s place to grow from.
You are exactly right!! I love to see people redemption story!!
The comeback is always better than the setback!
Yup I’ve been reinvesting into my technical skill which I let languish while I devoted my 100% to my addiction. Now that I am sober again, I got both my AWS and Azure Certified Admin Associate certs. Real confidence booster…like “hey Mr Brightside nice having you back.” I actually still got this!!
Thats great!! Keep up the good work!
Anything is possible and you can choose to be anything and anybody you want to today. Keep me posted on how things are going Emily. I am a Recovery Coach too so if I can support you in any way let me know?
You got this Emily. Stay strong.
Good job Josh.
I’m sorry to all of them I failed them I don’t understand why I did that you’ve seen when I’m sober I’m different
I want what my addiction has done to me every single one of the days that I did drugs is when my life fell back.I wanted it done and I can get it done