Home / Blog / Ways Work Life Improves With Recovery as a Professional: Part Two

Ways Work Life Improves With Recovery as a Professional: Part Two

Written by O'Connor Professional Group
Published on April 5, 2018

When you are under the influence of drugs and alcohol or struggling with the symptoms of a mental health condition, you cannot be fully present in your professional career. You tried, you turned to drugs and alcohol or other behaviors which ended up causing more harm than help. Making the decision to seek sobriety or recovery in any concept is a life-changing choice. By choosing treatment, you actively set forth a ripple effect of transformation in your life, including your work life. How you perform at work and interact with others will be one of the greatest testaments to your evolution in recovery.

More natural energy and ability

Our last blog discussed the many ways stress manifests when you are a professional struggling with addiction and/or mental health. The build up of stress in our work lives affects our personal lives, both inside and out. Stress is part of our natural internal environment, experienced through the development of inflammation on a molecular level. Too much unregulated stress causes us to be tired, sick, and inhibited in our performance. Under the guise of euphoria and anesthesia provided by drugs and alcohol, we may be more enabled to ignore our growing exhaustion caused by stress. Toward the end of our addiction, our fatigue was undeniable. Once we finally stopped and began the recovery process we released an ultimate confession. We were tired. That kind of exhaustion at work limited our performance abilities and forced us toward destructive forms of energy production. Keeping up appearances is a task we no longer have to strain to achieve. In recovery, we are present, rested, restored, and full of natural energy we haven’t had in years.

Treatment and a comprehensive care plan teaches us how to care for ourselves again. Addiction and mental health are holistic issues, meaning they affect the mind as well as the body and the spirit of our being. Our recovery must approach our wellbeing holistically as well. Through education on nutrition, exercise, wellness practices, stress management, emotional regulation, and much more, we refill the reservoir of our strength and energy. As a result, we enhance our natural energy and ability to perform at work.

Greater empathy and compassion

Empathy and compassion are two requirements of character for any professional in a position of leadership or a professional who is part of a team. Without empathy and compassion, a professional in recovery maintains the air of arrogance, selfishness, and self-centeredness which consequently develops when trying to manage addiction or mental illness. Providing care for others in any professional position means being empathetic to their every struggle and compassionate toward their lives. Recovery essentially forces us into an empathetic and compassionate relationship with ourselves. Deepening our honesty with ourselves broadens our perspective toward others and allows us to connect more fully with our employees, managers, c-suite executives, and everyone we meet in life. People are no longer patients, profits, or sales numbers, but people whose lives we have the gift of influencing every day because of our profession.

 

Let the O’Connor Professional Group take the guesswork out of putting a treatment plan together. Our combined personal and professional experience empowers us to empower you with a private consultation and customized plan of action for getting the help you need. Call us today for information: 617 910-3940

Ways Work Life Improves With Recovery as a Professional: Part Two

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