The Role of Willingness in Recovery

Willingness is one of the cornerstones of any solid addiction treatment programme. In short, it involves being entirely ready and prepared to do something. And, while the concept of willingness may sound simple as it applies to everyday life, it can be surprisingly difficult for someone in active addiction to become willing enough to recover. 

If you’re attempting to overcome addiction and doing it for external reasons (i.e., a spouse’s ultimatum, legal troubles, family pressure, etc.), your chances of long-term success are slim. If, on the other hand, you’re entering into recovery because you truly want to be sober and you’re not being forced or coerced, you have a good shot at maintaining long-term sobriety. The latter implies that you are willing to do what you must to get (and hopefully stay) sober. And being willing has the power to carry you a long way. 

Willingness is one of the cornerstones of any solid addiction recovery programme. In short, it involves being entirely ready and prepared to do something. And, while the concept of willingness may sound simple as it applies to everyday life, it can be surprisingly difficult for someone in active addiction to become willing enough to recover. 

Here are Some of the Reasons Why Willingness is Such an Important Aspect of the Recovery Journey: 

Changing Requires Dedication, Patience, and Work

Real change requires time and work. Choosing to give up drugs or alcohol in the first place starts with a genuine willingness to devote some time and energy to a new way of doing things, so if you’re attempting sobriety of your own volition, you already possess the key ingredient. And, if you’ve adopted this attitude, you’ve probably stopped fighting and taken the first step toward embracing positive change. You’re off to a great start.

The Recovery Journey Generally Requires Giving up Character Defects

Twelve-step and similar rehab programmes will ask you to examine your character defects. These defects tend to be ego-driven and include resentment, anger, self-condemnation, guilt, self-pity, self-justification, impatience, jealousy, and false pride, among others.

While you might not initially think you possess any character defects, you are unlikely to have none whatsoever. Those of us who are addiction-prone almost always have character defects that have driven past bad behaviour on some level. We must be willing to look at these and work toward giving them up to achieve real relief in recovery. 

Practising Rigorous Honesty is Very Important for Long-Term Sobriety  

For any die-hard addict or alcoholic, getting sober starts with admitting there’s a problem to begin with. So, you must be honest with yourself about your addiction when you first enter into recovery. After all, you’re admitting that you have a problem in the first place, and this is a brave move. It’s also a big part of long-term sobriety if you want to maintain any level of serenity in your recovery. 

Our secrets keep us sick, as it were. Ask nearly anyone sober for a long time who strikes you as a genuinely happy human being, and they’ll likely tell you that their life got better when they started being honest. This isn’t just about drinking or using. We must be willing to reveal all the dark and icky stuff from our past that drags us down, provided it doesn’t cause us or others injury or harm.

And, no, we don’t need to start running around and telling everyone in our lives every little secret we have the minute we get sober. But, as the baggage we’ve been holding onto starts to wear us down, and as we learn who we can trust and rely on, we can decide when to reveal what needs to be revealed. This is true vulnerability, and it can be profoundly healing. 

Good Recovery Requires Looking Inward

You must be willing to take a good look at yourself and the internal drivers behind your addiction if you want to have real success in recovery. This can be hard for addicts, as most of us spend our active drinking and using days avoiding our feelings or any thoughtful self-reflection.

Sobriety tends to bring up a lot of feelings that we’re not used to experiencing sober or that we’ve flat out never allowed ourselves to feel in the first place because we let alcohol or drugs beat us to the punch. 

Feeling our feelings and learning who we are for the first time is scary, but it’s ultimately one of the most liberating things to do. And it makes it a heck of a lot easier to maintain long-term sobriety when we’re able to know who we are, accept who we are, and love who we are down to every last little inch. Once we’ve achieved this, there’s nothing left to run or hide from. 

Getting and Being Sober Involves a Shift in Perspective

Obviously, if you’re not drunk, high, or hungover anymore, the world will start to look a little different on the surface, but that’s not entirely what the shift in perspective is about. Getting (and staying) sober means having the willingness to approach life not as something to endure or hide from when things get tough but rather as something to accept and embrace.

Your outer world will always reflect your inner world, and when you’re open to shifting your perspective, you’ll be surprised at how resilient you are. More often than not, you have a choice in how you perceive and approach life. By opening the door to willingness, you can create a life that is truly something to be celebrated. 

While there will be moments when life throws us a curve ball or two, willingness allows us to open our minds and become more receptive to growth and change. When life becomes unmanageable enough, we usually find that we’re willing to try a new way.  

Kembali Recovery Centre Can Help

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, alcoholism, or other compulsive behaviours and/or process addictions, Kembali Recovery Centre can help. Call us today to speak with one of our counsellors. Remember that you never have to do this alone.