Prior to making a doctor’s visit or shopping trip or visit to a friend, it’s a good time to assess ( self-assessment ) our needs before we take that first step out the door. Yes, self-assessment is paramount in our day-to-day recovery necessities. If we survey what are our top priorities are by utilizing a to-do list (paper old-school style or on your smart phone or iPad via an app), for sure, we’re not wasting valuable time doing things that could be a trigger, non-productive, or just a waste of time.
If you do things for a purpose, you’ll get things done. Even if that purpose is checking it off your list. There is a great value in recording your daily moods, journaling, keeping track of your days…even if it’s to self-evaluate a week from now or a year from now.
We are all individuals with unique personalities, mindsets and chemistry makeups. Self-evaluation can help us have the forethought that will help conversation with our doctors about testing out or trying out different therapies based on our self-evaluation. We can make changes to our spending habits based on our self-evaluation. Maybe, we can save more money by not spending sporadically if we only pay with cash and not rely on plastic credit cards. Self-evaluation can also help us in choosing up-building friends.
Self-Assessment and Friends.
Yes, we can choose our friends, but just like social media…we can choose to unfriend if we deem our friendship to be toxic, troublesome, triggering, or enabling us in some unhealthy way. True before we unfriend anyone for me personally I would like to give that person the benefit of the doubt. And speak to them about what it is that is bothersome to me that that is not helping me keep my balance. Perhaps, you have had friends that are heavy smokers and find out you have bronchitis and took you five months to quit. You finally quit, but your friends still smoke around you without a care. Thinking about this to the next step: what if you are an alcoholic, and you’re sober but all your friends are heavy social drinkers. Can you honestly say you will not be tempted by hanging out with them in a bar, or hanging out with them while they drink?
I heard it once said, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” Yes we are sometimes who we are with…So self-evaluation can help us make any needed changes, maybe with our doctor, maybe with our daily actions, maybe how we are interacting with friends and family.
If we are willing to adjust ourselves when needed and be flexible we will, without a doubt, benefit! Indeed, all of us need to receive encouragement and positive reinforcement. Self-assessment is one tool we can use to make sure we get the best treatment possible.
Consumer ambassador Chato Stewart
*Image 1 courtesy of Rawich / Image 2 courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net