The path isn’t a straight line. It’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths. - Barry H Gillespie
Recovery can sometimes feel like a repeating cycle: you try to stop the habits and behaviors that your addiction has engaged you in. You develop and begin to practice better coping skills. You start to experience what sobriety can be and what healthy choices can do for you. Then you relapse. Or get caught in an old lie. Or experience a hard loss or an emotional hardship. And you feel like you’re repeating the same old lessons again. It can feel like circling over and over again, without a possibility for change.
Even though it can feel the same each time you approach those lessons and emotions – the truth is, you are at a different place in your life each time. You bring to each stage in the cycle new life experiences, new skills, and new perspectives. Which means that this cycle of patterns is not a circle at all, but a slow upward spiral. And each time you come back around to another moment that you think you’ve faced before, you have a new chance to have a different response.
If you are considering addiction counseling, I encourage you to reach out to me to learn more. I have extensive experience helping folks on their recovery journey.