Your Life Changes in Recovery, but Does Your Personality?

How Does Recovery Change Your Personality?

Although quitting an addiction and setting on a path towards Recovery is a massive change for anyone to go through, it does not always change the way a person acts and behaves in other ways. Simply giving up alcohol can transform your health in many ways but people can often become trapped in the same negative cycles that they struggled with before they became sober. It takes extra effort and focuses to truly change anyone’s personal issues that are underlying their addiction. Hence, Life Changes in Recovery but not your personality.

Your Personality in Recovery

Some entering a twelve step program for the first time may feel disappointed that some of the other members are still dealing with anger issues, negativity and other personality traits that don’t reflect the perfect image of sobriety. Even though twelve step programs promise happiness and personal transformation, not everyone is able to achieve these things right away. It can be a tremendous amount of work to change all of the aspects of your personality that fueled an addiction.

It may be difficult to make significant personality changes in recovery but it is possible for people who focus on the things that they want to work on. Some things become easier in recovery just from being abstinent such as more stable moods, less conflict over addictive behavior and less drama overall. These changes can make people feel calmer, less stressed and more rational when problems arise.

Any serious personal issues can be worked through during therapy or by working on each of the twelve steps. It takes dedication and plenty of motivation to change attitudes or beliefs that are holding you back in any way. You can change negative aspects of your personality in recovery if you take all the steps seriously and don’t rely simply on abstinence to be the only transformation that you go through during treatment.