You Can Do Hard Things

There is no beating around the bush.  Medical detoxification is not easy.  It isn’t a walk in the park.  Heck, it isn’t even a walk in the park during a raging blizzard.

But, most good things, most necessary things, don’t usually come very easily, do they?  And ridding your body of the toxins, the poison that is in your body, is most definitely a good thing, a necessary thing.

You’re going to feel pain, and discomfort – both physically, and emotionally.  You’re going to wonder if this is worth it, if you can make it.  You may even try to convince yourself that you can do it yourself and that you don’t need the medical detox.  Your addiction is going to be terrified – fighting like hell to reclaim its hold on you; to get you back in its greedy little clutches so that it can continue to ruin you, be the demented puppet holder that will lead you little by little to death.

Please, oh please, fight.  Don’t give up.  When you’re sick, and you feel awful, and you’re frightened, remember that while what you feel is scary and painful, remember that it is worth it, that it is necessary so that you can achieve recovery and sobriety.  Dig down deep.   You are stronger than you know and braver than you believe.

Think of what you are doing this for.  Maybe it is to be a mommy or daddy that is healthy and present for their children.  Maybe you want to be able to graduate from college and make your mark in this world.  Maybe you want something more simple, but just as beautiful – a quiet, calm, safe, content world where you are not chained to a substance that ruins relationships, that turns you into a conniving liar, and that turns you into a person you know you do not want to be.

Becoming addicted to a substance brings a great deal of shame.  It is hard to meet the eyes of your loved ones, or even yourself, when you look in the mirror.  It is hard to believe that you deserve good things.  But know this.  You do.  You have an indelible mark to leave in this world, and you have so much ahead of you with your family, with your friends, with your passions and talents.  Medical detox is the first step to becoming the person you want to be when you are free from the greedy, ugly, and deathly grip of the addiction.  It will sneer at you, tell you that you are worthless and that you can’t do this – you can’t make it through detox, or that you will not be able to stay sober.

Tell that addictive voice inside you to shut up.

Make the thoughts in your mind of what you want in your life, of what you will be able to achieve once you have gone through detox and begin treatment at Shadow Mountain Recovery.  Think these thoughts loudly – say them loudly – live them loudly!

Oh, there is so much hope for you.  There is so much hope for a beautiful life ahead of you.  Detox is hard.  But it is so worth it.  Please, oh please fight.  Let the thoughts of all you want to do and achieve once sober be louder than the addiction whining for a fix.  Tell that poison, as its leaving your body, that it is leaving for good.  And as that poison leaves you, you can now begin to fill your life with beautiful, breathtaking antidotes:  love, a full life of bravery and resilience.

You can do this.  Hold on.