In the throes of addiction, we usually don’t find ourselves grateful for much of anything.

Drug and alcohol addiction cultivates a negative outlook on life.  It makes us miserable. When we decide to pursue recovery and begin making the necessary changes to our lives, gratitude becomes one of our biggest assets. A shift takes place in our thinking and in our attitudes.

We begin to see that we are responsible for our own happiness.

In addiction, people often think that they are being treated unfairly by those around them, and that if other people would just act the way they should, things would be alright. We tend to blame our situation on outside sources.  Once in recovery, we see more clearly how we have created or contributed to our situation. This gives us the opportunity to change.  Through these changes, we can start to see how instrumental gratitude in addiction recovery truly is.

So, let’s look at the definition of gratitude.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, gratitude is a feeling of appreciation or thanks; the state of being grateful; thankfulness.  A person in addiction recovery has many things to be grateful for. The first, and most obvious one, is sobriety. Making it through the day without using or drinking is a major accomplishment. Some people make lists of what they are grateful for, and this is a wonderfully effective tool when learning how to live a life of gratitude.  By identifying and acknowledging what you are grateful for, you can retrain your thinking process.

The other benefit of discovering gratitude in addiction recovery is that if we are busy being thankful for the things in our lives that we appreciate, we are no longer focusing on the negative.  We are no longer complaining about what we don’t have or what could have been. It’s so easy to slip into that pessimistic way of thinking.

Practicing gratitude in addiction recovery is essential to a healthy and effective recovery program, but it is also life-changing in so many ways. Remember that your attitude and your outlook on life rule your world. When you find you are getting down and stuck in self, ask yourself a question: What am I grateful for?

If you or someone you love needs help overcoming addiction, please contact us anytime at (337) 379.7700.