How to Deal with Emotions in Recovery

When going through recovery, most people continually speak about maintaining a certain level of positivity when going through the transition into a life of sobriety.

Especially since people who are coming out of sobriety are coming out without abusing the drugs that they used to use to suppress their feelings, it is important for them to be able to address all feelings, including negative ones, in a positive way. This way, they will be able to fully move on and be able to enjoy the positive feelings, without having the negative ones constantly tugging on their subconscious.

According to Tal Ben-Sharhar, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, attempting to suppress negative emotions will only intensify them in the end. He teaches that, “when we suppress these painful emotions, they intensify, they become stronger, and they prevent us, often, from experiencing positive emotions.”

By allowing yourself to fully embrace negative emotions like loneliness, anger, sadness, anxiety, envy and stress, you allow yourself to be in the moment, address the issue, and eventually move on and embrace feelings of positivity. Without drug use to suppress your emotions, feeling all emotions at once may seem overwhelming, but with time will become more manageable.

Just because positivity helps with recovery, does not mean that you all of a sudden have to change personalities and become an extroverted and outgoing person. As long as you make a change regarding how you feel about yourself on the inside, it’s the most important part of dealing with emotions in recovery.

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