Recovery
If our lives have become unmanageable, it’s time to stop taking our mood-altering medications and receive the treatment we so desperately need, but that is not as easy as it sounds. The thought of living without our only relief creates fears that immobilize us and we may not ask for help until our lives are utterly devastated.
In order to work through these fears, we need to trust others. We have proven over and over that we cannot do this by ourselves. We need special people in our lives that can help us walk through the fears while we feel safe. If you are in an appropriate treatment setting it is essential that you trust the staff members, realizing that their only goal is to improve the quality of your life. It will mean confronting these overwhelming fears by taking risks.
Detoxification
At first, your body will probably need to detoxify off the mood-altering chemicals, because a stopping suddenly can be life threatening. This is, by far, the most fearful part of treatment. In order to help you through this stage, let’s look at some interesting information:
- Mood-altering medications replace certain neurotransmitters in your brain’s receptors. If abused or used for an extended period of time, they stop the brain from producing neurotransmitters that promote natural healing. It’s a catch-22. We are taking the medication to relieve the pain, which stops the body’s natural healing mechanisms.
- Nobody would expect you to detoxify off your chemicals without replacing them with non-mood-altering alternatives. These alternatives are usually non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that will not only help the pain, but also reduce painful inflammations.
- Being with other people in treatment can help take your mind off the pain.
- The fear of the pain is usually worse than the pain itself. We have learned to be in awe of the power of our pain, placing it on a pedestal and worshipping it as though it was a power far greater than ourselves. We think that if we stop taking our mood-altering chemicals, the pain will get worse. Both of these thoughts are irrational.
As the chemicals clear from your body, you will probably experience a wide range of feelings, both positive and negative. Your brain is trying to adjust to the chemical imbalance caused by your addiction. Depression is very common at this point, but should not last long. If needed, this could be treated with antidepressants.
Denial
A symptom of the disease of chemical dependency is denial. People who are chemically dependent and in chronic pain are more susceptible to denial, because they think if the pain subsides, we will no longer abuse our medications. We must understand that we are now every bit as powerless over the medications as we are over the pain. Some of us will begin using our pain as an excuse to get “high.” In many cases, people with this type of denial have suffered more consequences before they finally accepted their powerlessness.
Sharing the pain
