It’s also common for people who struggle with substance misuse to have co-occurring disorders like depression, anxiety or PTSD. If that is the case for you, perhaps you began abusing drugs or alcohol to smooth out complicated emotions or to help you numb the pain associated with reliving unpleasant memories. Once addiction takes hold of your life, you start spending more time maintaining the needs of your disease than keeping up with friends and family. If this continues, you may look around one day and realize the people you love are no longer there to support you.
The Problems With Isolation in Recovery
Often, even after getting help and committing to sobriety, overwhelming feelings of isolation may continue. In addition to feeling isolated from others, you have cut drugs and alcohol out of your life as well – substances that may have become a stand-in for a healthy support system. That puts you in a tricky situation, as loneliness can undoubtedly be a powerful relapse trigger. It’s essential for your long-term sobriety to do all you can to combat loneliness – but certainly, that often seems easier to talk about than to act upon.Loneliness is a common human emotion, and most people experience it every now and again. However, in most cases, it’s a fleeting feeling. If you are having many of the following feelings most of the time, you need to know when to take positive steps to protect your happiness, your mental health and your sobriety – even if that is challenging for you.
Symptoms of intense isolation may include:
- Feeling unable to connect with others
- Being sad when there is no one around to talk to
- Thinking nobody understands you or cares about what you are going through
- Feeling worthless, hopeless or abandoned
- Worrying you will never be able to stop feeling this way
The Hidden Dangers of Staying Isolated in Recovery
For people in recovery, loneliness is something to avoid at all costs. First of all, it is one of the four letters in the acronym HALT, which stands for four emotions that can put people at increased risk of a relapse: hungry, angry, lonely and tired. Each of these feelings will put you in a tough place emotionally, which may represent a challenge to your ability to make healthy decisions.Also, socially isolated people have nobody to listen to other than the inner voice of their illness, which can be dangerous. In addiction recovery, a lack of accountability is often a recipe for disaster. In general, forming bonds with others makes life easier and helps strengthen our feelings of self-worth. And, according to a recent study, loneliness makes people more vulnerable to mental health challenges like mood disorders.
Ways to Break out of Your Isolation Cycle
If you need help finding ways to stop feeling isolated, try the following.- Join a club: Connect with peers who share some of the same interests as you, whether they are athletic, artistic or otherwise.
- Volunteer: Volunteer service is an excellent way to give back to your community, and it helps you meet plenty of new people.
- Go to support groups: Surrounding yourself with others who are working on their recovery can be enormously helpful. You will meet people who have faced similar challenges and dealt with some of the same issues.
- Adopt a pet: Bonding with a pet can create one of the purest relationships you will ever have. Pets offer unconditional, non-judgmental love and ask for nothing in return but that you love them back.
