Addiction Recovery and Emotional Intelligence

Emotions are difficult for most people, not just those in addiction recovery – however, emotions in addiction recovery are an important issue in treatment because the consequences of not dealing with emotions are too grave for the recovering addict. The ordinary person who doesn’t understand their emotions or know how to deal with them might have relationship problems or become confused and in need of counseling, but for the addict a return to alcohol or some other drug can be deadly. Emotional intelligence is important in addiction recovery.

This is not to say that someone who is not an addict can not experience deep emotional problems and face dire and deadly consequences if he/she doesn’t receive mental health counseling — I’m just stressing how important emotional intelligence is to recovering addicts. Also, it helps to understand that chemical imbalances in the brain can cause emotional turmoil — this is usually corrected or ameliorated with the right medical treatment. Here, though, I’m writing about emotional problems not caused by a lack of certain brain chemicals, problems that can’t be resolved with medication.

The recovering addict has to become intelligent regarding their emotions. Emotions are mysterious to many people – they seem to come from nowhere, and they seem to have power over our actions. You often hear, “I don’t know what happened, I got angry and just reacted stupidly”, or “I have no idea why I’m so down, it just came over me”.

Emotions are better understood when we take to time to know ourselves better, to reexamine old value judgments that might have developed during our childhood or teenage years, yet we haven’t re-evaluated these old values. If I learn at a young age that snakes are potentially poisonous, and I see one today, I have that seemingly automatic fear that drives me to pay attention and proceed with extreme caution. Although the emotion of fear seems automatic, there was a process in the brain that is lightening quick that connected with the idea/value I formed about snakes when I was five years old. Developing emotional intelligence involves slowing this process down and understanding our emotional reactions.

Fortunately, the value judgement and ideas I formed about snakes fits in with reality, but if I had been beaten and abused by my father as I grew up and developed an automatic anger at authority figures later in life who reminded me of my father, this value judgment would be at odds with reality. The point is that adults who take the time to reevaluate their old value judgments and muster the courage to take an honest assessment of themselves, their old ideas and values, usually become more mentally healthy and emotionally intelligent.

This is from Alcohol Rehab.com:

Skills Required for Emotional Intelligence

It is suggested that emotional intelligence involves a number of different skills including:

* The individual is able to control their impulses, behaviors, and feelings. This is referred to as the ability to self manage.
* Those people who are emotionally intelligent are able to understand the emotions and needs of other people. This is referred to as social awareness.
* The individual is able to recognize their own emotions and understands how this can impact their thoughts and behavior. This ability is known as self awareness.
* The person good skills in regards to relationship management and this means they are able to build healthy relationships and communicate effectively.

In order for the person to be considered emotionally intelligent they need to be able to:

* Recognize and manage their emotions.
* Be able to quickly reduce their own stress levels.
* Will be able to confident resolve any conflicts in a positive manner.
* Will have developed some mastery over non verbal communication.
* The individual is able to use humor when dealing with the difficulties in life.