By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Do you avoid something that would be good for you?

You walk right up to the thing that might help you heal and you turn away. Each of us has our own special ways of avoiding the healing process. We tell ourselves lies, listing to the lies from our disorder, or avoid the things that might make us better.

Do you know the prescription for what ails you but you use tricks to avoid taking that medicine?         Do you use any of these methods to avoid healing?

1. When you start to feel you reach for drugs and alcohol?

Early on in the process drugs and especially alcohol look like the solution. How often have you heard someone say they needed a drink to deal with an unpleasant emotion?

What happens more often than not is that the chemical you use only temporarily blocks the feelings. When the drug wears off the feelings return worse than ever. Eventually, alcohol or drugs do not take the feeling away.

At that point, your solution has become the problem. Now you have to keep drinking and using to forestall the crash that comes with withdrawal.

Your friend, the chemical, has turned on you.

Sometimes the best solution for unpleasant feelings is to feel them. A friend or professional can help with things a chemical cannot.

2. You don’t ask for your needs to be met.

People expect their friends and family to know what they need. I hear them say that if I have to ask you to do something then it does not count. This is just one more way of setting ourselves up to be disappointed and to blame our ills on others.

Unless you are the exception, you do not live with a mind reader and your partner, family or friend does not know what you want and need.

No one is inside your skin but you. Are you hungry? You need to say so. Are you lonely, tired or feeling unloved? Tell those around you what you need from them. They may not always be able to give it to you but you will get a lot more of your needs met if you just learn to ask for what you need.

3. You avoid conflicts by saying what they want you to say.

Sometimes saying nothing is a way to avoid conflict. Many of us need to learn to bite our tongue more often.

What is worse than saying nothing or saying too much is the habit some of us have of saying what we think others want us to say even when that is not what we want or mean.

If you have developed the habit of agreeing with people before you have had the chance to think about your needs you may avoid some conflict in the short run but you will sabotage your recovery.

4. Beat yourself up and shoot yourself in the foot.

Are you your own worse critic? Telling yourself you are bad, a failure, and the like is not going to make you do things better. Learn to give yourself encouragement and you are likely to make a lot more progress than if you beat yourself up.

That does not mean you should fail to address your shortcomings. Just do that by changing your actions not by calling yourself names.

Do you just find another self-destructive behavior to take the place of the pain? Lots of people do the old shoot yourself in the foot thing.

5. Your mind just leaves.

Daydreaming is the first cousin of dissociation. In extreme cases, this can be a diagnosable disorder. But short of that dissociation disorder, many people have ways of just letting their mind wander away.

Do you daydream rather than take action? Do you distract yourself with videos, online games, casinos, or other activities that allow you to avoid facing your problems?

Most problems do not disappear while we are out to lunch. A problem not dealt with is likely to grow.

Take a look at yourself and see if there are ways that you are avoiding taking the actions that you need to take and as a result, you are the one keeping yourself from healing from emotional pain.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

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