05/20/2021
They say that people that struggle with addiction are gifted with heightened levels of sensitivity and intelligence. However, when we are feeding our addiction with drugs and alcohol, we often numb our sensitivity & we often dull our intelligence. And, in our substance use, we are even known to misuse the gifts of sensitivity & intelligence, resulting in self-defeating patterns. An example of a way we can misuse our sensitivity in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly sensitive, people with addiction often absorb the emotions of those around us, including painful emotions, which can contribute to ongoing substance use to numb those painful emotions. People with addictions often have porous boundaries with others, we have yet to learn how to protect ourselves from taking on the emotions of others. And people with addictions often have little experience with handling painful emotions without using. The combination of being highly sensitive & of being inexperienced with coping with emotions, often leads to substance use. An example of a way that we can misuse our intelligence in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly intelligent, people with addiction can rationalize & justify ongoing substance use. A high level of intelligence can promote ongoing denial of addiction & underlying issues that lead to our substance use. Denial to a ferocious, sometimes fatal degree.
Perhaps we misuse these gifts in our addiction because we have yet to learn how to honor these gifts?
At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, people can achieve sobriety & begin a journey of recovery. In treatment, we reclaim our gifts of sensitivity & intelligence. We learn how to honor these gifts, how to allow these gifts to serve us, in self-enhancing ways.
An aspect of our sensitivity and our intelligence is known as our intuition. Intuition can be defined as “a knowing without knowing.” It is said that our intuition can perceive truths, without using conscious reasoning (in other words, intuition involves our “subconscious”). Intuition is a way of sensing & knowing something instinctively, on a gut level...
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