[Leed]

"Learning to trust is one of life's most difficult tasks." ............ Isaac Watts

We are only as healthy as we are able to trust. An inability to trust sentences us to walled-up lives protected from the deceit of others. Such isolated living makes full human recovery impossible.

The task, however, is not to blindly trust. We have done that - to our undoing. The task is to discern who is trustworthy and who is not. Trusting has never led us into trouble, but the people who have chosen to trust have. And then all too often we have demanded unshakable loyalty from ourselves toward that untrustworthy person.

Trust must be earned. Our discipline is not to blindly trust others but to patiently wait to see if they have earned that treasured gift from us. Our goal must be to wisely discern who is trustworthy and who is not.
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I am learning to trust myself as I grow in emotional stability. As I learn to trust myself, I am better able to determine when and when not to place my trust in others.

Trusting has always been a huge problem for me -- who do I trust and who do I NOT trust. Unfortunately, I have trusted many people that I shouldn't have. While I have managed a pretty good "sobriety" recovery, I haven't done well emotionally, in recovery. I do tend to live a very quiet life, and seldom go anywhere but find it comfortable since I'm disabled anyway. But I do still struggle with trust.

[Tamster]

Leed,
How beautifully you write. Trust is such a huge issue in addiction. Even though mine is physically over the ugre to use is amazingly strong. I can understand why my family doesn't trust me. I have to live quietly as well or I will run to the drug that ran my life. It is also hard to learn to trust another when you dont trust yourself, I am supposed to trust my pdoc which I suppose I do but it is a hard road to walk.

[Cherry73]

With everything I have been through, especially in the drug realm, it is pretty safe to say I trust almost no one. There are only 2 people on this earth that I truly 100% trust. To me trust is earned not given so by the nature of that statement you must give someone the chance to earn trust. This is where it all falls apart for me. I hardly ever go anywhere I don't absolutely have to, like kids activities and doctors appointments. Sometime I even cancel the dr appointments if I don't want to leave the house. I would much rather just spend all my time home..alone with the exception of my children of course. So for me it is like a vicious circle that perpetuates itself. I don't trust anyone because I don't give anyone the chance to earn it because I don't go anywhere to meet such a person to offer a chance.
In a way I am the cause of my own unhappiness. I sit and think of how nice it would be to have someone to love and spend my life with that loves me as much as I love them but I never give myself the chance.