Addiction can affect a person in many ways and recovering from drug or alcohol abuse can test your confidence.

Addiction can affect a person in many ways and recovering from drug or alcohol abuse can test your confidence. For many people, a lack of self-confidence contributed to their substance abuse disorder. Especially if you hit rock bottom at some point in your active addiction, your level of self-confidence and self-respect may have been low. While addiction recovery is a whole new chapter, these feelings can threaten your sobriety if they aren’t properly addressed. If you don’t know how to gain confidence in recovery, our center for drug and alcohol treatment in Gilman has some helpful tips.

How to Gain Self-Confidence in Addiction Recovery

At Banyan Treatment Centers Heartland, we know that building confidence in recovery is essential to sustaining sobriety. In many cases, these individuals struggled with their level of confidence even before their addiction. In fact, this feeling often contributes to substance abuse. Many people have turned to drugs or alcohol to cope with negative thoughts and feelings. But now that you’re in recovery, there are great ways to boost your self-confidence without fueling your addiction.

Identify Your Strengths

Find the things you enjoy and do well. Whether it’s soccer, piano, painting, or any other hobby, use them to your advantage. Work at improving your skills; we often feel the most confident when we succeed in what we’re doing. You can also share these things with others. You may even find a club, group, or class that focuses on that particular skill.

Forgive Yourself

During your active addiction, your character and attitude towards others may have been hurtful. Many addicts become so focused on their substance abuse that they’ll hurt their loved ones in the process. In drug and alcohol addiction treatment, making amends with those you’ve hurt during substance abuse is emphasized. However, you also have to forgive yourself. Being more confident in recovery can be difficult when you haven’t forgiven yourself for your past decisions and behavior.

Take Care of Your Body

Eating healthy and exercising regularly is not just for Olympians or fitness gurus. Eating the right things and regularly exercising are great for your physical and mental health. Not only will you physically feel better, but you may also lose some unwanted weight. It’s normal to gain weight in addiction recovery. Sometimes these extra pounds are less than desirable. Practicing these healthy habits can help you feel and look your best, boosting your confidence in the process.

Celebrate the Milestones

Whether you’ve hit the one week or one-year sober mark, it’s still an incredible achievement. Addiction is a chronic disease, and every day that you don’t give in to your past behavior is a milestone that should be celebrated. Don’t be afraid to give yourself credit.

Surround Yourself with Supportive People

If you’re learning how to gain confidence in recovery, it’s important to think about who you surround yourself with. If you’re constantly around negative and unsupportive friends and family, then your confidence may take a hard hit. It’s difficult to feel good about yourself and your progress when the people around are making you feel less than. Whether they’re friends or family, politely decline their invitations to spend time together, and instead, share your days with others who are supportive of your recovery and want to see you succeed.

Avoid Comparing Yourself to Others

Comparing yourself to others is the quickest way to drain your confidence and lower your self-esteem. Everyone’s recovery journey is different. Do not compare yourself to others, regardless of what they’re going through. Recovery is not a race, and the most important thing is to stay sober and stay healthy.

Ask for Help

Sometimes it’s hard to boost your level of confidence on your own. If you’ve hit a point where you feel stuck, ask for help. Whether it’s help from a family member or a friend you made in recovery, having the support of others can help us realize the progress we made and motivate us to keep going. At our rehab center in Illinois, our alumni program brings people who are in recovery together and utilizes peer support for boosting confidence and sustaining sobriety.

At the end of the day, you are the only one who can change your attitude. To build confidence in recovery, you have to identify the changes that have to be made in your life.

If you or a loved one is battling with addiction, recovery is a phone call away. Call Banyan Heartland now at 888-280-4763 to find out how we can help you.