Most importantly, you are open and honest in your letter. Hannah Rose, LCPC, is a therapist, writer, public speaker, and lover of all things caffeinated. You don’t stop even when we are lying broken on the floor, crying and begging for mercy. You don’t stop when we are shaking, physically withdrawing from your goodbye letter to addiction chemicals.
Look to a Joyful Future With Your Friends and Family Members
That’s when I realized that you were never a friend at all. I had to admit my complete powerlessness over you in order to release your grip on my existence. But as I bear witness to you ripping through the lives of my friends, my family members, and my patients, I find it nearly impossible to surrender again. You would think I would have accepted this by now—that you want us dead—after battling with you my entire life. The letter above is just an example, and yours should be focused on your own experience and feelings.
Remind yourself that you can do this and that drugs and alcohol do not need to control your life. Be that supportive voice you may need to hear at a future date. These same words may stop you from relapsing later on. Writing a letter to your addiction may seem daunting at first. Dear addiction, I never thought in a million years that I would be writing this letter. I gave up almost everything in my life to be with you.
A Goodbye Letter to Addiction: You Felt Like One Of My Family Members
It signals readiness to break free from alcohol or drug abuse – an incredibly cruel evil master. This letter marks a final commitment to staying free of alcohol or drugs and shows how thankful one is for their newfound sobriety. Afterwards, I went to an inpatient treatment center where I made friends with a bunch of other people whose lives, like mine, you had wrecked.
When I finished it, I felt a tremendous weight lifted from my shoulders. You gave me a false sense of comfort. You made me think everything would be okay as long as you were there.
- No matter what stage of recovery you are in, we can help you maintain what you have accomplished and continue moving forward.
- The only relief I ever felt was when I fell into the evil clutches of addiction.
- Recovery empowers individuals to confront demons and embrace a brighter life.
- They say that when we are sitting in meetings (12-step programs), you are outside in the parking lot doing push ups.
- The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice for any individual case or situation.
Step Three: Explain Alcohol’s Impact on Your Life
Our Goodbye Letter to Addiction template offers a guiding hand in this transformative process. With this template, you’ll find how to articulate your farewell to addiction, acknowledge past struggles, and embrace the promise of a brighter future. Not sure you are ready for an alcohol treatment program? You can relax knowing that getting all the info you need about our programs is confidential and does not obligate you to any final decisions. Just knowing that you are reading our blog all the way to the end shows that you are almost ready. When you make that final determination to make recovery count, we will be here for you.
I will seek the support of an addiction treatment center who cares about me. But I was wrong when I believed you. You’re a tremendous liar who promised to help me when I was scared. I have realized that My health has deteriorated, my children have been taken away, and I don’t have a job to support myself.
You can have your life back with our professional help. We provide residential inpatient programs or outpatient care in our Joint Commission Accredited facility. Today, I choose to take a different path.
Even though it is deeply personal, I will include what I wrote in my goodbye letter, and give some insight into how you can approach your own goodbye letter. We all have our own ways of letting addiction go. Addiction wreaks havoc on your personal and professional life and eventually feels like it becomes a part of you. It maybe sounds strange, but one of the most difficult things for me to accept was leaving that part of my life behind. It felt like a part of me died when I got clean.