When we are recovering from addiction it is critical that the recovering person do their best to avoid stress overload. Sometimes when we stop trusting in our addiction to protect and control our lives, we then anxiously take the reigns and begin to work feverishly to put our life back together and feel a sense of control again because we feel we are in a now unprotected state. When and if we do succeed in frantically rebuilding our lives and showing everyone that we are not the rotten person that they thought we were, we may start giving ourselves permission to play with our old addiction again and the results are always the same, relapse. What happens when we load too much work, service to others, or stress upon our shoulders, is that we start getting overloaded and we start to automatically think about relieving that over-stress with our old addictions. This state leads to relapse eventually, and then we feel even more discouraged than before we started. This cycle of overload and relapse must stop in order to recover fully.

Once we hit rock bottom and give God control we must continue to leave the control in His hands even though things are starting to look like we can take the steering wheel again. The truth is, you will never be able to manage your life effectively unless God is guiding and helping you with it. Control is an illusion and God is the only one qualified enough to call all the shots in our lives, because He is the only one that has all the facts and who knows the future. You might have a lot of responsibility already with children, marriage, or work, but we must surrender all of that to God and allow Him to downsize us as much as necessary, and to make things as simple as possible for us. We may also still have a chemical imbalance to deal with after an addiction, so overstress is a very dangerous thing to allow to exist in our lives. If God has made things simpler for you in your life, then do not add unnecessary responsibilities to your schedule just because you can. Satan wants you overloaded so that you will relapse, but God wants to create the best environment possible for you to heal in. You may not feel the same sense of control, power, and protection when things are easier, but you will be able to heal and grow, and thus recover.