If you’ve ever felt that you are not doing well in addiction recovery, or that you are faking your success, you may suffer from Imposter Syndrome. Fighting Imposter Syndrome in addiction recovery can make your journey difficult because you don’t believe you deserve to be addiction free. That’s not the truth, though, and you deserve not only to be an addiction survivor but to be proud of yourself as well.
Fighting Imposter Syndrome in Addiction Recovery: Your Own Worst Critic
Imposter Syndrome is a term that was first introduced by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in the ’70s. This term was used to describe their observation that many high-achieving women often believed they were not necessarily deserving of their accolades and accomplishments. These same women felt like imposters who ‘lucked out,’ with success.
Today, Imposter Syndrome describes pervasive feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, incompetence, or inability to be successful. For those struggling with addiction, the syndrome makes them their own worst critics.
If you’re in active addiction, you may believe the lies you hear in society. A common lie is that your past and present actions make you less worthy of recovery and rebuilding a new, substance-free life. This fuel for Imposter Syndrome makes it even more difficult for you to believe that you can break the chains of addiction, but that’s not true. We will help you realize your potential, your actual self-worth, and teach you to ward off the sabotage of Imposter Syndrome in addiction recovery.
Imposter Syndrome in Addiction Recovery & Sabotage: A Vicious Cycle
If you’ve ever tried to recover from substance abuse and struggled, it may be because you also thought yourself to be a fraud. You may have told yourself that you “Couldn’t do it,” or that “You didn’t deserve to be free,” because you didn’t believe you deserved to be. That’s how Imposter Syndrome can sabotage your recovery. When you doubt yourself, you may slowly but surely be erasing any success you have at trying to abstain from the addictive substance. This stress, guilt, and depression can lead you to active addiction again, as you feel you’d end up there anyway eventually.
More, Imposter Syndrome can sabotage your recovery because you may feel like you’re living in a house of cards about to fall if anyone knew who you really were. Once you start to believe the lies you tell yourself, even the successes you may have in repairing relationships and trying to get your life back seem temporary to you because you’ve just been lucky. You believe that soon enough, your luck will run out, and you’ll still be someone struggling with addiction and letting everyone down.
It’s just a lie, though. You can be successful in recovery, and the professional and compassionate staff at Ocean Hills Recovery knows how to help you be so.
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Recovery Is Work, Not Luck, And You Can Do It!
Recovery from active addiction takes hard work and determination on your part. Ocean Hills Recovery wants to walk with you step by step as you claim your life back. Recovering from substance abuse does not just happen by luck, but it is possible. Ocean Hills Recovery will help you remember that you are worth the changes you will make. Most importantly—you deserve them because you’re putting in the effort to take your life back.
Imposter Syndrome in addiction recovery is real, but together with Ocean Hills Recovery, you’re an unstoppable team. They’ll help you put an end to Imposter Syndrome with long-lasting and deserved sobriety, so contact them today and start your new life.
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