We, as humans, are fallible and many times unwilling to experience discomfort. When our life does not go our way, wanting to quit or walk away is not uncommon. When we face struggles or are unhappy, we prefer looking for an easy way to feel better or a way to block the experience from our minds, even if blocking the experience is temporary. While this is normal, wanting to escape our experiences all the time is not healthy. Trying to avoid our life struggles also makes us avoid the joys of living life to the fullest. When we practice escapism, we miss our family events, children’s joys and growth, and many other things that make life worth living.
Life is a struggle. Sometimes, treatment is an uncomfortable part of building the life we want. However, not all treatment is uncomfortable. There are moments in treatment where you bond with others and learn you are not alone in your suffering. You learn how to laugh again and how to believe there is a future. You also learn how to let others experience joy and foster their growth.
There Is a Future
Holding on to the idea that there is a future can help you get through treatment. Truly, there is a future beyond the pain and suffering you have experienced in your life. However, part of getting to that future is perseverance. Perseverance is not easily learned, but practice makes perfect.
Perseverance is synonymous with: persistence, determination, patience, doggedness, and stick-to-it-iveness. So perseverance means you keep going, even when the going gets tough. Treatment is tough, and continuing to keep going may seem even more difficult, but persevering and sticking to it is the best way to ensure your success.
Believing in the power of change and your ability to start mapping out a new life for yourself is going to help you get through treatment. Henry David Thoreau advised us to “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”
You deserve that life – now go after it. If, at first, you stumble, get up and try again. Be dogged in the pursuit of your dreams for a better life.
What Does Perseverance Look Like in Treatment?
While everyone’s treatment experience is different, perseverance in treatment has the same attributes for everyone pursuing it. Perseverance consists of an open mind and a willingness to engage and change. While hiding in your bedroom and sleeping away your time in treatment is easier, those behaviors do not promote healthy living nor lasting change. Instead, they inhibit your growth and make building a better life more difficult. When you are unwilling to engage with treatment, you lose your opportunities to learn, grow, and foster self-acceptance.
At Renaissance Ranch, we offer a wide variety of resources to ensure you get the most out of treatment and are ready and able to face life beyond treatment. When you are unwilling to engage, you are denying yourself the opportunity to grow and promote lasting change in your recovery. The decision to enter treatment is not an easy one, nor is it easy to maintain. However, maintenance of that decision can ensure your recovery. Persevere, and you can succeed in your recovery.
Why Is Perseverance So Difficult?
As a society, we would rather act impulsively and avoid situations that cause discomfort. Our past behaviors have taught us how to avoid difficulties but ultimately made our lives more difficult. We have compulsively engaged in behaviors to ease our suffering. When we are faced with that suffering, including the suffering of facing our past decisions, it might feel like our emotions will undo us. However, you are stronger than you know. Also, you are not alone. Do not let your fears and discomfort rule your willingness to stay in treatment, ask for help, or engage with others in your pursuit of a better life.
Things to Remember
When in treatment, a camaraderie develops between you and others, enabling you to process your emotions both in and outside of the therapy room. Learning how to journal your thoughts and feelings can help you persevere. In treatment, you will learn skills and life balance to help you persevere in treatment. You will learn how to meditate and reflect. You will improve your physical health and learn how to appreciate and take care of your mind and body.
One important skill that is transferable is the skill of perseverance, which you will need as you pursue recovery outside of treatment. Recovery might be lifelong, but you will learn how to balance your life, your recovery, and your healing by going through treatment and not relinquishing your forward movement.
Practicing perseverance in treatment (and ultimately, beyond treatment) can ensure your success in recovery. You deserve true and full healing, and that comes from allowing yourself to obtain the help you deserve and need; perseverance ensures you get help. When you are struggling with substance use disorder relative to alcohol and/or other substances, feeling like you deserve help or are even able to move forward is difficult, but you deserve a better life. God created you for a purpose, and now is the time to reach for it. At Renaissance Ranch, we offer assistance for every part of the recovery process, beginning with detoxification and onto life beyond treatment with our Band of Brothers alumni group. We believe in your ability to heal. Begin the process of asking for help today by calling us at (801) 308-8898 and begin the process of building a better life – the life you always imagined. You deserve it.