Reclaiming Your Gifts in Sobriety

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, people can achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery.  In Detox and Addiction Treatment, we reclaim our gifts of sensitivity and 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 and knowing something instinctively, on a gut level. 

When we achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery, we begin to notice our intuition, we practice honoring it, and we learn how to channel it in self-enhancing ways.

Sensitivity and Intelligence

They say that people 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, and we often dull our intelligence. 

And, in our substance use, we are even known to misuse the gifts of sensitivity and intelligence, resulting in self-defeating patterns of behavior.  

• Misuse of Sensitivity

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 addiction 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 addiction often have little experience with handling painful emotions without using substances.  The combination of being highly sensitive, and of being inexperienced with coping with emotions, often leads to substance use.

• Misuse of Intelligence

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, and intellectualize ongoing substance use (among employing other defense mechanisms).  A high level of intelligence can promote ongoing denial of addiction, and ongoing denial of the 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? 

Paying Attention to Intuition

There are many ways to describe how paying attention to our intuition can contribute to growth in our awareness and therefore to growth in our recovery.  In this post, I share about how clients access their intuition in a group session during which clients are asked to “draw addiction in the form of a person/character.”

• Personifying the Problem

That being said, there is a therapeutic activity that I particularly enjoy doing with clients in group sessions at South Orange County Detox and Treatment.  It is called “personifying the problem.”  (As a side note, “personifying the problem” is a technique from a school of thought known as “Narrative Therapy.”)  As mentioned above, clients are tasked with “drawing their addiction in the form of a person/character.”

Before reading further, consider for yourself:

What would you draw if you were asked to draw addiction in the form of a person/character?

What does your gut say about how to draw addiction in the form of a character?

Over the years that I’ve been doing this activity in group sessions, clients invariably draw characters that share a common theme. 

The common theme of what clients draw to represent addiction could be described by words such as “evil,” “terrifying,” “violent,” “voracious” and “all consuming.” 

To represent addiction, clients invariably draw depictions of demons, monsters, hungry ghosts, and the devil.  Clients invariably use black, gray, and dark red colors for their characters (often with yellow eyes, and menacing facial expressions).  Clients invariably share that their “characters” say harmful, mean, false, angry, blaming, hateful things to them, stoking painful emotions, luring them or provoking them into using substances.

Where do you imagine awareness of the traits of these “characters” originate?

What clients draw to represent their addiction can be said to come directly from their intuition.  While there are other aspects of this activity that are enlightening and/or therapeutic, the aspect of how our intuition senses the destructive nature of addiction is what I am highlighting in this post.  People with addiction have an intuitive understanding of the monstrous power of addiction, evidenced by the characters they draw, describe, and discuss in this group therapy/counseling session.   

Intuitive Awareness of Addiction

Bringing this intuitive awareness of addiction to light, through drawing addiction in the form of a character, can be key in seeking treatment for addiction.  As we listen to our intuition, we learn how our intuition can guide us away from negative influences, and towards positive influences. 

So, for now, consider what your intuition is telling you.  

What is Your Intuition Trying To Tell You Today?

Your intuition could just save your life and point you in a positive direction. 

It could be telling you that today is the time to get treatment, to call South Orange County Detox and Treatment and reach out for help. 

Your intuition most likely senses that you deserve better in this life. 

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, we intuitively know that you deserve better in this life.

Paying attention to your intuition could become your saving grace.