Arrogance Will Quickly Suck You Into Addiction Relapse

You know all you need to know about staying sober, and really – those people at meetings annoy you.  You don’t really need to keep going to those anymore since you’ve got it handled.  And why should you stop seeing your old friends?  They know you can handle it when they drink in front of you.  Your drinking wasn’t that much of a problem in the first place.  You could probably even drink one or two and it wouldn’t make any difference.  You know who that is in your mind speaking to you?  Arrogance, and he doesn’t care a bit about your sobriety.

Arrogance Doesn’t Care About You

You may not think you are arrogant about your drinking.  You’re smart, you have made some changes already – you just wish people would stop treating you like you are some kind of dimwit.  Well, stop and think about that for a moment.  When you tell a preteen to start cleaning their room and they yell, “I know!” with a mad look on their face, then they really didn’t know.  They just didn’t want to look like they caught off guard not doing what they were supposed to (which is keeping their room decent on an every day basis).

Arrogance Is A Personal Defense With Addiction

Arrogance is a common defense mechanism for someone who’s annoyed at being  expected to do something they don’t want to do (because it’s hard, boring, requires consistent effort).  That preteen is scoffing at authority, believing that they really know what’s their priorities are.  They would rather text their friends, loaf on the couch, and stay out late instead of doing family chores, keeping their room decent, and coming home on time.

That may not be a perfect analogy, but it does illustrate how arrogance is just an attitude.  Anyone can have arrogance about anything, even sobriety. When you haven’t been to a meeting or seen your sponsor for a long time, you might have some arrogance.  When you skipped your aftercare because you already “got everything” you needed from your alcohol or drug treatment, you might have some arrogance.  When you start convincing yourself that you may not even be an alcoholic, you might have some arrogance.  That arrogance can blind you so much that you feel “surprised” when you relapse and find yourself in another hole.  And that’s precisely what you want to avoid, why arrogance can lead you right down a path to relapse.

Let Go Of Arrogance Get Back On Track With Sobriety

You really may not want to admit that you really do need help staying sober.  Nobody really likes to realize that they don’t have much control over something within themselves.  That can be a scary thought.  But when you can face that thought with honesty and take the next step to get help, you can get through it.  Maybe you need to go back to an alcohol treatment aftercare session.  Perhaps you need to see your alcohol treatment counselor for a few individual sessions so you can get a clear vision for your sobriety again.  Reach out, get back on track, and let some of the arrogance go.

Photo credit: artsymama2