Tip # 10: Say Goodbye to Your Addiction with a Heartfelt Letter!

In 2008, he was recognized by the Praed Foundation as a national “Systems Champion” for implementing a statewide children’s assessment for DCS. He also received the Friend of Children Lifetime how to write a goodbye letter Achievement Award in 2010 from Tennessee Voices for Children after seven years on their board. As you write, remember that this letter is for you. It need not be read by anyone else.

  • By writing a declaration to break the addiction, the patient is creating a strong contract with themselves.
  • This started off with plenty of happy moments, like the first time I experienced getting high or drunk.
  • It can also allow you to express the caring and emotion you feel that might be harder to communicate in person.
  • I don’t miss going to the liquor store and shaking so bad during checkout I could barely put my credit card in the card machine to pay.
  • I should abandon my friends, shut out my family.

I felt so alone, even though I had you. I knew you were destroying my life. And I knew there was nothing I could do about it.

Goodbye Letter to Drugs: Why & How to Write One

Start receiving support via phone, video, or live-chat. All you ever did was take and take, but you never gave. Actually, I take that back – you did give. You gave me heartaches and burned bridges. You gave me sorrow and torn-apart relationships.

With you, I wasn’t attached, but was in love, and thought we would live happily ever after. We have been through thick and https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/choosing-sobriety-gifts-10-great-ideas-to-consider/ thin together. This started off with plenty of happy moments, like the first time I experienced getting high or drunk.

Struggling With Porn Addiction?

For many, cutting ties with an addiction is similar to breaking up a long-term relationship. Going through detox and addiction treatment is effective, but it’s common to enter sobriety feeling like there are unresolved issues. I guess I’m just feeling a lot of emotions now and don’t have my old friends drugs and alcohol to help me numb them or run away from them. When I think about drugs and alcohol, I get sad.

letter to addiction

I get scared because coming to rehab means sobriety and no more drugs and alcohol. It’s like I’m not saying goodbye to just the drugs and alcohol, but to all the things that I know. My entire life needs to change, and although there is part of me that finds that exciting, there is a much larger part of me that is completely terrified.

Learn More About Rehab and Treatment

So, consider this my final breakup letter, because I will never again return to the suffering you caused me. Like all unhealthy relationships, it’s time for you to end things with your addiction once and for all. It starts with you confronting your addiction head on. Design for Recovery provides structured sober living in Los Angeles, California. I thought that my traumatic childhood experiences would disappear thanks to you.

letter to addiction

Fortunately, those feelings are in the past; I know better now that I have achieved sobriety. The hardest thing about letting you go was putting myself first. But that decision is what ultimately showed me just how strong I am, and how much I am capable of. What you do with your completed letter is up to you. Many people choose to keep the letter in a safe place where they can revisit it occasionally for inspiration or to see how far they’ve come since writing it.