It seems that in recent times we have moved from a dominantly religious society to a more secular one; with this trajectory in mind, it isn’t too difficult to see that the way faith has become to be perceived as a less valuable virtue than it was 30 years ago. The idea of faith used to be primarily used in religious dialogues where it remains one of the highest virtues. If we already have established faith as a primary value, the process of adopting it and utilizing within our recovery programs may come a little easier. If we are not familiar with employing faith, however, the process can be a little trickier.
First, let’s define faith as it pertains to our recovery programs; faith is the ability to engage in right actions which may not yield our desired results in that moment, but that will eventually become a reality if we are able to continue our commitment to take the necessary steps. The initial phases of recovery are a time of confusion, frustration, and stress. Because of the inherently chaotic nature of early sobriety, we can see how the adoption of faith is crucial when trying to set the goal of long-term sobriety. As humans, we like to be able to gauge our progress and we like to make decisions that we can predict the outcomes from. This creates a potential problem in the context of recovery because a lot the actions we are guided to engage in do not produce the outcomes in the time frame we might want. One reason for this is because we are essentially rewiring our cognitive and emotional structures which doesn’t happen overnight. Because as addicts we are used to instant gratification, the patience and faith in this process can, at times, feel as though it is unbearable. This feeling is only exacerbated by a lack of faith in the process because without this faith we cannot hope to maintain our resilience and focus if we are not seeing the fruits of our labor immediately.
Tree House Recovery of Portland, Oregon uses cutting-edge techniques in individualized programs to help men achieve freedom from addiction. Taking a holistic, sustainable approach to the inner and outer effects of addiction ensures you or your loved one will emerge with the confidence and skills to manage your addiction independently. No one is beyond help- our Admissions Counselors are available 24/7 at (503) 850-2474
