Low Self-Esteem and Drug Abuse
When a person is in treatment for alcohol, methamphetamine or any other substance, receiving therapy and counseling is very important to recovery. Besides the dual-diagnosing aspect, many addicts have low self-esteem and feel very poorly about themselves. A lack of confidence combined with self-hatred can make the recovery process difficult. One of the things that individual and group therapy do to help those in recovery is help the addict to try to understand why she started to use in the first place. Often there is a combination of poor self-esteem and several other factors.
By increasing a person’s self-worth, the addict will begin to see hope instead of feeling despair. The guilt that is felt will start to go away and the addict will have a better chance at sobriety outside of treatment. Many studies have found that even young children, 11 years old, have a greater chance of using drugs if they have poor self-esteem. Being unhappy with oneself can lead to many problem and drug abuse and addiction is one of the main ones.
Increasing the self-esteem of users will help them in their battle against addiction. If the user feels that he or she can stay sober, the chances of success increase.
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May 3rd, 2008 at 8:34 am
Self esteem is a crucial component of recovery. Many addicts began using substances because they believed that they could never fit in with their peers, or felt unloved or rejected by family members. The 12 Steps of AA offer a blueprint for improved self-esteem; helping us identify and acknowledge our character defects and trust in a higher power to empower us to become the people that we want to be. Therapy is also helpful as we explore how these character defects have functioned as defense mechanisms against pain that we don’t know how to handle. Gatehouse Academy is a unique long term program which offers a year to live the 12 Steps with therapeutic support. This coupled with daily opportunities to succeed at life can form the basis of a healthy and sober self-esteem.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I could not agree more with Sandy – especially the aspect of therapeutic SUPPORT as it relates to recovery. I would take it a step further and suggest that therapeutic support is actually authentic relational support that was likely missing in the addicts early life. By focusing on positive relational callings – I am loved, I am worthy, I do not need to be perfect- self esteem is instilled that allows the recovering person to build an authentic identity including all assests and liabilities.
Hope all is well!!
Doug Phillips MS
The Foresight Group