Following up on what Freethinking shared, when I look at life and all that I've done, and can't undo, and all that I have ahead of me, I get paralyzed with terror, shame, etc.
one of the things about using, for me, was that it kept me totally IN the moment. There was no yesterday, or tomorrow, there was just NOW.
I find that if I do the same in recovery, things tend to work themselves out. I take care of what's right here on my plate, and don't wallow around in ten thousand yesterdays and ten thousand tomorrows. I go to work, I pay the bill that's due, I meet a friend for their birthday, I watch a movie that just came out, feed the dog, wash my car. It's all doable.
And if I consistently apply this, it really is all doable. Even tough stuff, the sort of stuff I used to hide from by using, if I just handle it as it comes along, I can actually handle it! Divorce, surgery, car trouble, even getting terrifying lost in the woods. Handled it by staying in the now.