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Most People Who Are Recovering From Addiction Struggle With Self-Respect.
Many people who come into rehab struggle with shame and are unable to forgive themselves for their past actions. Finding self-forgiveness and self-respect is key to long-term recovery.
Like happiness, self-respect cannot just be ‘switched on’. Many people, in desperate need of self-respect try finding a quick-fix something to make them feel better: perhaps buying a new car or new clothes or displaying arrogant behaviour in order to feel ‘superior’. Or perhaps letting others invade their boundaries because any kind of attention makes them feel better.
Self-Forgiveness
Self-forgiveness goes hand-in-hand with self-respect. You can’t respect yourself if you haven’t forgiven yourself for your past faults, and according to the 12 Steps ‘made amends’ for them. In other words, you have to take a seriously hard look at your life when you were misusing alcohol or drugs and look at the harm you did to yourself and to others, and try to make amends for what you have done.
Only then can you forgive yourself and set yourself free from shame – ready to move onto a new stage, that of self-respect and hope for the future.
Building self-respect in early recovery from addiction can be a slow but highly rewarding process. It combines assertiveness, self-acceptance, spirituality, realism, focus, forgiveness, respect for others, and humility. It is rewarding because you can see results and better still, you can feel them, as your self-respect increases.
How to Build Self Respect?
Try these 10 self-respect-building exercises:
1. Assertiveness: Recognise when people disrespect you and take steps to stop it. A person with self-respect doesn’t allow others to treat them badly, and would rather not associate with someone who is disrespectful. When someone doesn’t give you basic respect, you need to be able to say, in one way or another, “You just disrespected me and that’s not acceptable to me.”
2. Self-acceptance: Get to know yourself. The more you understand yourself, the more you’ll appreciate how unique you are. Discover your own values, personality, and abilities. Stop people-pleasing and start developing your own character and standards. Be true to yourself. It is important you have faith in your own values and remember what is important to you. Just because other people think you should behave in a certain way, doesn’t mean they are right.
3. Spirituality: True self respect brings inner peace. Spirituality nurtures that inner peace. Do not reject this side of your personality. The journey toward spirituality can be an exciting and deeply satisfying experience.
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4. Realism: Learn to handle criticism. We are sensitive beings. To maintain a sense of self respect, we need to learn how to deal with criticism. Don’t take criticism personally. Look at it from a detached perspective.
5. Focus: It is the motivation that matters, not actual results. The problem is that we equate our self respect to outer displays of wealth, success, and social standing — and this is a mistake.
6. Forgiveness: Forgive others and forgive yourself. Don’t live in the past. Move on from past mistakes and difficult situations.
7. Respect others: If you have no respect for others, how can you respect yourself? It is the wrong approach to try to feel better by putting others down. If you look for good qualities in others, it will be easier to see the good qualities in yourself.
8. Humility: The way to self-respect is not through praise from others, which gives a false sense of pride. Be selfless.
9. Self-love: Never hate yourself. This can become a dangerous habit. We make mistakes, and we may do the wrong thing, but we should never put ourselves down unnecessarily.
10. Responsibility: Make a conscious decision that you are no longer going to take the ‘victim’ role – you are responsible for your life and only you can make change happen. Joan Didion, an American author, says that ”the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”
By working on these ten ways to build self-respect you are taking responsibility for your life and future, free from shame.
Struggling?
If you are struggling with self-respect issues alongside alcohol or drug misuse, please contact our help desk to find out more about our residential rehab programme. You can also follow us on social media to find out more about self-help and mental health awareness.
