Thought: ‘Never forget that to some you know you are a role model.’
Addictions UK uses Twitter to share inspirational Thoughts every day. This article is based on one of them. Follow us at @addictionsuk.
It’s a humbling Thought that people might look up to us.
In fact almost always someone does admire you – whoever you are and whatever you have done.
It’s a wonderful but painful fact that the children of parents addicted to drugs or alcohol still love them and turn to them for advice and guidance and support.
The people you work with know your limitations (even if you have managed to conceal the reasons). But they still admire and respect your qualities and achievements.
Less obviously, in any group of similar people there is are leaders and followers and even those who are not at the top find people turning to them from time to time. All this is as true of a community of addicts, cut off from much of society as it is of a first-class football team – and many of those have embraced talented and admired addicts.
Whoever you are and whatever your condition there are certainly some who look up to you. For those coming to terms with addiction, that realisation is a two-edged sword. The knowledge that you are not all that people want you to be is certainly a burden but the understanding that you have never lost the chance to inspire and bring on others can encourage and lift you too.
No-one should ever seek out failure but when people realise that you are not perfect then your good qualities seem more real. They can be the more inspired by understanding that you are not so different, that you have problems and face challenges just as they do. And because you and they are not so different, they know they too can achieve whatever it is they admire in you.
And take a moment to turn this around. There are people in your life, in your present and in your past, who you admired and respected. Whatever you Thought, actually they weren’t perfect either. At least some of what they achieved is still within your grasp too.
Please contact us now if you need help with recovery from any addiction and especially if you are seeking home-based treatment.
