Personal Responsibility In Sobriety

Personal responsibility for many years was something that I once lacked tremendously. I lacked a lot of maturity from within. I once was a king of self-sabotage. Not taking responsibility for anything regarding me and my own life, set up an even clearer reason for not being responsible on the outside. Looking back, it makes a lot of sense now, that addiction was a terrible vice for me for a very long time.

I hadn’t put much thought into any of this for the longest time. There is no doubt whatsoever that lack of thought turned into the fuel and the strength that made my addiction so powerful and so devastating to everything and everybody around me. Being irresponsible as an addict hurt many more lives than just one. If anything, it likely hurts the loved one around us even more.

Much of recovering from addiction and living a life of sobriety is taking personal responsibility. By that, we must first take an inventory, and be honest to ourselves. But what does this really all mean? What do we need to correct and take responsibility for inside ourselves so we can then give it outward to the world?

The blame game is a game that I had to stop playing. Speaking of responsibility, I was the one out there who was trying to blame, make excuses, and find someone else to always take the heat that was generated from my own lack of responsibilities.

When looking at personal responsibility, a key factor starts with being able to accept ourselves for who we are. We shouldn’t hold any resentments towards ourselves for our shortcomings. Remembering that nobody is perfect, we need to be able to not take a blaming approach towards our imperfections.

When taking a look at myself as someone who suffered from addiction, the way to approach that is to not blame anyone or anything for that struggle. It’s more about taking personal responsibility for the disease so that it is able to be taken care of it, by seeking treatment. Giving into the addiction, playing the victim’s card, and rationalizing myself into relapsing are the truest examples of personal irresponsibility.

Besides working proactively to treat our addiction, other ways of taking personal responsibility if self care in other ways. There is more to it then quitting the drug use in addiction. There is getting into a regular routine of quality exercise, working hard to have a well-rounded, healthy diet, and seeking total care for our mental health beyond just substance abuse. Self-care for us addicts must go into those different paths of health. Simply sitting at home, white knuckling life like a resentful dry drunk or addict is setting oneself up for failure.

Another area of personal responsibility that I have read and learned about is remembering where we came from. What that really means is not simply appreciating the sobriety we now have.

Rather, it’s just as important that we take an appreciation of the road that we traveled on that journey to recovery. Appreciating the things we learned, the tools we obtained, and especially, the people who helped us or stuck by us along that route. We can learn what true unconditional love is in journeys like these.

For myself, reinventing my faith, and reactivating my spirituality was another strong component towards taking personal responsibility. It was a finishing touch for leaving no rock unturned in this quest.

I cannot say that recovery in sobriety is still not an everyday fight. However, that fight definitely can get a bit easier day by day, if personal responsibility is sincere, strong, and guided by faith.