Many people struggling with addiction, and especially women struggling with addiction, have a very low evaluation of their self-worth. For many clients (unfortunately the vast majority of them), this stems from a lifetime of trauma and abuse. 100% of Breakthru House clients acknowledge a background of trauma and abuse where they repeatedly received the message, "You're not good enough," "You deserve horrible treatment," and "Nobody cares." Once they entered active addiction, our clients sent this message to themselves by not taking care of themselves and abusing their bodies and spirits, and by placing themselves in dangerous situations to be re-traumatized and have those shaming messages again reinforced.
It is a part of most of our clients' official treatment plan goals to increase their self-worth. In addressing low self-worth, clients are asked to identify their negative self-talk throughout the day and challenge the truth of those negative messages. Some clients find using daily affirmations to be helpful. Some clients use collages and other artwork to surround themselves with positive messages. Clients are encouraged to participate in a variety of activities so that they can discover that they can have fun while sober. Many of our assignments are emotionally difficult - asking clients to look at where their negative beliefs about themselves originated. Some of our assignments are a little more light-hearted.
The following video clip is from the old TV show, Allie McBeal. Tracey Ullman's character in this clip does not play a very professional therapist, so I am including the disclaimer that this isn't what actually happens in therapy! :) I do use this video clip though, to explain the assignment to many clients to Choose a Theme Song.
The following is an example of a client's theme song. Stay tuned for more!!
What about you? Do you have a theme song? Maybe you should! We'd love for you to share your thoughts and theme songs in the comments below.
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