Published December 27, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

There’s a moment most people try to avoid at all costs—the moment when discomfort shows up and there’s nothing immediate to distract you from sitting with it. No purchase to make. No break to join. No screen to scroll. No noise to drown it out. Just that quiet, unsettling feeling that something inside you needs attention.

Most of us were never taught how to sit with that feeling. We were taught how to fix it. Numb it. Override it. Replace it with motion, stimulation, or control. And over time, that instinct becomes automatic. Discomfort appears and action follows. Not because the action is healthy, but because it’s familiar.

When it comes to activities that can easily become compulsive, like collecting or gambling, this pattern shows up constantly. A slow day becomes an excuse to make an unplanned purchase or place a bet. A stressful moment turns into a justified “reward”. Boredom or anxiety become the rationale. And before you realize it, discomfort itself becomes the trigger—not the exception.

But growth begins when you stop running from that feeling and start listening to it.

Being uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. It often means something is changing. It means your nervous system is recalibrating. It means you’re no longer numbing, escaping, or outsourcing your regulation to something external. That’s not weakness—that’s progress.

There’s a moment in that space where nothing is pulling you forward—no distraction, no urgency, no escape. Just you, standing at the intersection between what’s familiar and what you know, deep down, is healthier. That pause can feel unsettling, even heavy, but it’s often the exact moment where real change begins.

The reality is that healing almost always feels worse before it begins to feel better. Not because you’re failing, but because you’re finally present. You’re noticing urges instead of obeying them. You’re feeling emotions instead of buffering them. You’re allowing space where there used to be noise.

And that space can feel unbearable at first.

But here’s what happens when you stick it through—when you don’t rush to escape the discomfort. The feeling rises, and then it falls. The urge peaks, and then passes. The moment you thought you couldn’t handle quietly dissolves without you having to do anything at all. In recovery, we call this “urge surfing”—riding out that wave of impulse instead of being pulled under it.

That’s the muscle most people never build on their own.

Learning to be uncomfortable without reacting is one of the most powerful skills you can develop—not just in recovery, but in life. It’s the difference between impulse and intention. Between reaction and choice. Between short-term relief and long-term peace.

You don’t need to eliminate discomfort. You don’t need to conquer it. You just need to stop treating it like an emergency. Because once you realize you can survive it, it loses its grip. And that’s where real freedom begins to take shape.

#CollectorsMD
Discomfort isn’t a sign you’re failing—it’s often the signal that you’re finally growing.

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