Drug Addiction and Emotional Boundaries

When you have a drug addiction, you deal with a lot of emotions.  Emotions are in charge, which is like saying that your kids are in charge at home.  Not a great idea in either situation!  Too much chaos, not much direction, and too much responsibility for people or functions that aren’t really capable.  When you go into drug addiction recovery, you’ll be learning about emotional boundaries.

Emotional Boundaries Separate Your Feelings From Others

Emotional boundaries, sounds like some kind of psycho babble, right?  Well, it’s actually pretty simple to understand.  Let me give you an example.  Your child gets badly hurt and you really feel bad for how bad they feel.  You are likely to take on your child’s emotion almost as your own sometimes.  Parenting is a deeply connection activity, so a serious injury would understandably poke some holes in those boundaries.

If you can pull back and separate yourself from your child’s emotions most of the time, you probably have fairly healthy boundaries.  But if your get really wrapped up in every emotional up and down in your child’s life, your emotional boundaries are pretty loose.  You feel something and your feeling takes over how you
live your life, rather than being a *part* of what steers your life.

Drug Addiction Keeps Emotions In Charge

Now consider drug addiction.  Emotions get enthroned here because many people, especially women, begin overdoing drugs and alcohol because of some emotional reason.  Their emptiness is too much, they have depression, they can’t handle anxiety well, they have lost someone important in their life, etc.  The emotion is so huge, and many efforts are made manage it.  Since drugs and alcohol are not terribly effective for this an often cause more problems, the emotions remain at the forefront.

Unless a person gets drug treatment or some kind of mental health counseling, an addiction will likely form.  Emotion remains front and center.  A person’s toleration for irritation, change, conflict, emotional intensity, and being overwhelmed all become rather small.  It doesn’t take much to set off upsetting feelings.  In other words, a person’s emotional boundaries let way too many things past the front gate.  These boundaries  aren’t strong enough to protect and separate the person from outside irritations and other people’s feelings.

Drug Rehab Helps Put Emotions Back Into Balance

Drug treatment can help an addicted person learn about their emotional boundaries and how to improve them.  Even after drug treatment is finished, a person in recovery needs to be aware of emotion getting too prominent in their life.  Please don’t misunderstand – emotion is a wonderful thing that makes us uniquely human.  But too much is too much, and it was never meant to be in charge.  That’s what the logical functions of the brain are for.  Drug rehab can help to get the balance right.