Are you stuck in a relapse and it feels like you just can't get out of it if so this video
is for you, because we are gonna tell you exactly what you need to do to get yourself
"unstuck" and back on track.
For those of you that are new here, I am Amber Hollingsworth from Put The Shovel Down, the
YouTube channel designed to help you understand the science and psychology of addiction, so
you can get your life and your family back on track and get back to living the life that
you want to live. And on this channel we are all about practical advice and strategies.
And your gonna get a good healthy dose of that today, because today we are gonna talk
about how to get yourself unstuck from that relapse cycle that your in. Now the key to
this whole thing is you have got to move into action, because part of the reason your stuck
in that relapse cycle is because you keep telling yourself these vague promises, like
"today is the last day", or "Monday is the last day", or "when I use the rest of this
that's it I'm not getting anymore". You keep telling yourself that its going to be different
tomorrow or later or some version of that, but your not putting any action behind that
its just these vague promises. And as you probably already know if nothing changes then
nothing changes you have got to do more than that lets take a look at some specific actions
that you can take. The first thing that I want you to do is I want you to stop and think
and take a little inventory here for a second what kind of bad influences do you have hanging
around in your life. Now I mean several things when I say bad influences, like for example
are you keeping drugs, alcohol, or paraphernalia around so that its easy to get, if so, that
is going to continue to sabotage you. You have to get rid of it, If its there its a
temptation, now you might be telling yourself "I'm strong I can overcome that" and maybe
eventually you can but early on when your trying to make big changes you don't wanna
make it any harder on yourself then it has to be. So if you've got the substance around,
get rid of it, if you drink wine and you've got wine glasses laying around put them in
a box up in the attic. Do something, make it to where its not easily available. Now
another thing that I mean when I say get rid of bad influences that could be people in
your life, are you putting yourself around people that either live that kind of lifestyle
that your trying to get rid of and it keeps you stuck and wanting it, it keeps you stuck
in glamorizing the lifestyle. Are you putting yourself around people that have some kind
of stake in keeping you sick, like their your dealer and they make money by keeping you
sick. You have got to get rid of these people. Another kind of person that you may wanna
think about, at least distancing yourself from anyone who just brings a ton of negativity
to you, do they keep you stuck?, do they keep you down?, do they keep you feeling terrible
about yourself. If you cant get rid of them at least keep some distance from them, because
its dragging you down and you don't need that. Now a third thing that you might wanna consider
getting rid of is any kind of negative thought process that you're having. Are you keeping
your own self stuck? Now examples of this may be self pity, or resentments that you're
going over in your head, because these are the ways that you're keeping yourself making
excuses for why to make more bad decisions. All of these things have got to go! It is
time to "clean house" now don't tell yourself "when I finish what I have" literally, do
this right now, go get rid of these things that you need to do, delete the numbers from
your phone, block the numbers that you know have your number that you don't want to hear
from. Decide that now is the time. Getting yourself out of a relapse is something that
you need to take steps on when you are ready. And the fact that you're listening to this
video tells me that you are ready, so lets take action on it now. Now the second thing
that I want you to do, just as soon as you get rid of all of that stuff is I want you
to step into the light, now what I mean by that is you're going to have to bring to the
surface what has been going down, and I know everything inside of you doesn't wanna tell
your sponsor, doesn't want to tell your family, or maybe if they already know you don't want
to tell them the extent, because your telling yourself "I don't want to hurt them" or "I
don't want to make them feel bad", but you know that the truth of it is you want to leave
everything on the table. Either you don't want them to take action or you don't want
them to know you're not supposed to be doing those things, you have got to bring it into
the light. You cannot recover in secrecy and darkness, because those things fuel addiction.
Now you don't have to tell everybody, but you need to tell some people. And you know
those people. because a big reason why you might be staying stuck in this relapse is
because you are keeping it secret and you keep telling yourself that you're gonna do
better tomorrow, but no one else knows that, so its so easy for you when tomorrow come
to say "ill do it the next day" and on and on we go. Step yourself into the light. And
the third thing that I want you to do, is I want you to make some either appointments,
or dates, or schedule, I want you to go ahead and make a plan for more action that you're
going to take, maybe that's I'm going to go to my home group every Tuesday and call up
my sponsor and say " hey I've not been doing good, I need to go to a meeting everyday can
you hold me accountable for that? Whatever it is I want you to go ahead and put it on
your calendar I want you to make a commitment. Commit out loud to someone else, not just
to yourself because it is easy to break a promise to yourself. Commit it out loud that
might be making an appointment with a counselor, talking to a
recovery coach. Whatever it is go ahead right now and schedule it and tell someone else,
accountability partner, that that's what you're gonna do, and to check in and ask you about
it, to make sure you're staying on track. Can you see how taking all these action steps
really is different than just this vague promise of I'm gonna do better. That's right no more
fake promises. If you will do those things its gonna be much harder to continue in that
relapse and much easier to get yourself out of it. Now another action step that you can
take right now that is super simple, is you can sign up for our thirty day "Jumpstart
Program", its totally free, and its just a short video message that comes to your inbox
everyday that will help you keep on being motivated, stay on track and overcome roadblocks,
its gonna keep your head on straight. I'm gonna put the link in the description and
you can get yourself signed up for that right now and you can consider that one of your
appointments that you're making an appointment to watch a recovery video everyday. Now if
you don't already have someone else in your life that is helping you with your recovery
like a coach, a sponsor, or a counselor. Then you might wanna consider getting yourself
a counselor or a coach. And one really good place to do that is BetterHelp, now BetterHelp
is an online counseling service that actually sponsors this channel and the thing i really
love about BetterHelp is that you can at any point you can go on their site right now and
make that appointment. Its super easy. The other thing I really like about it is that
you can communicate with your counselor. Now maybe you think counseling seems strange or
it seems intimidating, or your not really sure if you're gonna like it, or if its gonna
work for you. Online counseling couldn't be less intimidating. If its that terrible just
shut your phone off. Bonus if you use the links in the description you actually get
a discount, while you are taking those action steps that I know you're in the process of
taking. I want you to listen to this next video on relapse. Im gonna put my entire playlist
up here for you so you can get your hat on straight and start taking these actions and
get back in control. So you can live the life that you want to live.