I wasn’t a big reader in my 20’s (not sure if that also played a role in my inability to learn during those ages?) . Once I started getting into my recovery I started reading again. Reading almost made me smarter in a way, feels like it at least. You get a chance to learn from as many different angles in recovery as you can. Since humans are very complex, no one way is going to work for everyone, so getting your hands on as much recovery books and healing books as you can will help you be able to learn new things that you can use to adapt into your life.
Literature
Recovery Books, Videos, other people’s stories. Feed yourself as much recovery material as possible. You reap what you sow. I have read and can recommend so many books on recovery and spirituality. Not all of them are recovery books either, how to improve your marriage, books on connecting with God. All of these are going to put you in the right path. For me reading has been a huge part of my recovery and when I don’t read for a majority of my week, I can feel something missing, I am not feeding myself with the materials I need to get well.
I can also say that when I pick up a book on recovery or how to overcome lust, I just get this feeling that the story being shared is about me. I don’t always relate to every story that is shared, but I can relate to the pain that drove people to looking for an escape that came in the way of sex. I can relate to the thought processes. It’s incredible now to be able to understand why people think the way that they do. It is understandable but not excusable. I can understand why people act out sexually, drink away their pain, shoot themselves up with drugs, gamble away their homes, shoot innocent people. I think it all comes from a place of pain and everyone turns to different forms of escaping that. Can understand it but can’t excuse it. Reading more and more literature has helped me learn more about others and why they do what they do.
When we see people do horrible things because of the pain that was caused to them, it makes me feel sad for everyone involved. Nobody ever reached out and said hey you don’t have to do this, you’re in pain, lets get you some help. I think a lot of it stems from not feeling loved, or not being good enough. As someone who can personally attest to those feelings growing up its painful. I can’t excuse the choice that these people made, but can understand why they thought that it was the only choice to get rid of the pain eating away inside.
Some of us are not readers, so podcasts are the way to go, if you have a commute to work listen to some in the car. I. recommend listening or reading stories of others who have been in your shoes struggling with this for their entire life. To hear the stories of the pain they went through but also the new life now and peace that they have found brings hope.
And that’s all we are looking for as people in pain. Hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It is possible to overcome our addictions. There have been many others that have paved this path before us.
Any recovery material you can read/listen to do it. Start off with 1 book. Then grab the next. Everyone’s recovery story is different the tools that they use to get sober might be different as well. So, seeing as many views of people becoming sober successfully for long periods of time will give you options, ideas, and different perspectives on how to overcome this addiction.
We forget how crazy complex human beings are and how each one of us needs different things to get by in our everyday life.
I’ll list the different recovery books that I have read since recovering from my addiction. I would recommend all of them.
God Bless