Self confidence is extremely important to maintain your mental health. People who have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, oftentimes, have very low self confidence and they need to start helping themselves. A lack of self confidence can keep you from pursuing any dreams that you may have.
If you are currently experiencing an addiction or have experienced an addiction to drugs or alcohol, you can probably relate to this topic. You may know firsthand what having little self confidence is like. If you are now in recovery from your addiction, you will have learned from therapy and rehab that you must increase your self confidence and raise your self esteem. A boost of self confidence will be truly rewarding and can be a great help during your entire recovery and life.
Top 10 Ways to Increase Your Self Confidence
Addiction Advice for Current Addicts and Recovering Addicts
ONE: Think Positive
Try to practice replacing any negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Changing your thoughts can make great things happen and increase you self confidence. Remember to think positive about your recovery from an addiction to drugs or alcohol. When you first begin to change your thought pattern to a more positive one, remember, it will not be easy or fast. This is something you will have to work on, on a constant basis.
Overtime, this new way of thinking will not only help rid you of an addiction, but also help in preventing a relapse and be beneficial for you and all the people in your life. This is actually one of the easiest things you can do and achieve to boost your self confidence.
TWO: Get Rid of Negative Thoughts
It may seem like this one should be above in Think Positive, but in fact it is important enough to stand on its own. You must learn how to be aware of yourself and the thoughts you have about yourself.
An example may be, you are feeling down and think about using drugs or drinking alcohol. If you can learn to recognise this negative thinking, you will positively change your life and increase your self confidence. Instead of thinking about using or drinking, try to tell yourself that you don’t need them, that it is not worth it, or some kind of other positive thought. This will help when recovering from an ongoing addiction, help prevent any future relapses, and be overall beneficial for your life.
THREE: Get to Know Yourself
While trying to overcome a self created negative self image and replace it with self confidence, your true enemy will be yourself. You want to make this enemy your ally. To do so, begin by listening to your thoughts and write in a recovery journal. Think about the good qualities or traits that you have and explore them, and remember, everyone has good qualities or traits, the person must admit to themselves this fact. Think about the things you can do well, and the things that you like.
Some people will go through their whole life and will never truly think about what they want out of life, and this alone will help with confidence problems and can help with recovery from an addiction. Dig deep down inside and explore your true self, and eventually you will gain an even greater self confidence from this alone.
FOUR: Slower and Clearer Speech
If you are a fast talker this can be because of several reasons, but usually this makes your speech unclear. Naturally, there are fast talkers, but with practice most people can slow their speech down and make it clear. Talking fast can be because, you might have too much to say and you are trying to get it all out at once. Staying focused on what needs to be discussed and what does not will help you slow down your speech and will help you express your ideas and opinions better.
If you are a fast talker and you work on becoming slower and clearer, you will see a big difference in how other people perceive you. For example, a person with authority normally speaks slowly and clearly; it shows self confidence. When or if you speak very fast, it can mean that you feel you are not worth listening to so you almost ramble out the message. Learning to speak slowly will help you to sound and feel more self confident.
FIVE: Learn New Skills
Try to take time out of each week, or even each day, to study and practice a new skill. Many skills can be used for major life changes or just something you have always wanted to learn and do. A new skill can be something you want to learn, a career change, or just something you have a passion for.
Pick something that you already have a desire or passion to learn and do, and then begin by learning more about it, then practicing it, and then doing it. For example, if you would like to write about addiction, but you feel you do not have adequate writing skills, just begin by writing more each day. Start with a recovery journal, an addiction blog, or creating short stories. The more you write, the better you will become. Becoming better at something will change your life for the best.
