Many of us struggling with addiction are also contending with mental health issues, many of which can be severe and debilitating. One common mental illness many of us share is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. We form toxic thought patterns that we obsess about so much they become ingrained in our psyches, driving our emotions, behaviors andRead More
When we are working to recover from our addictions and mental health issues, one of the things we must address is how we identify with our trauma. Many of us completely suppress our trauma. We refuse to admit that it has affected us in any way, or even that it happened at all. We haven’tRead More
Our subconscious voice is the voice of our innermost fears, our woundedness, the deeply rooted pain we’ve sustained from loss and trauma. It is the voice of our subconscious mind, where all of our emotional information and memory is stored. The subconscious mind governs the vast majority of our conscious thoughts, most of which areRead More
When we are working to heal from addiction, we want to look at our history as we are examining our current circumstances, difficulties and dependencies. Our recovery teaches us that our history is in fact a huge contributing factor to the challenges we’re experiencing now. This is especially true when we have a history ofRead More
One of the things we must confront in our recovery is our tendency towards complacence. When struggling with addiction, we often became complacent in our pain, stuck in the comfort zone of ignoring our problems and pretending as though everything was fine. We weren’t yet willing or ready to do the necessary work. We gaveRead More
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). As we undertake the recovery process, we learn more about the thought patterns contributing to our mental illnesses. We learn that our thought habits fuel our unwellness, and that to heal, we have to transform how we think.Read More
Much of the work we do in recovery is internal, healing our relationship with ourselves and coming to terms with who we are so that we can move forward. Once we’ve done this important inner work and become stronger within ourselves, we find that it’s time to make amends to the people we’ve hurt overRead More
Our recovery journey brings with it huge transformation and an inner peace we may never have felt before. We heal deeply rooted fears and emotional patterns that caused us severe pain. We create new, healthy patterns and habits that serve us so much better as we move forward. We gain a newfound sense of self,Read More
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Our addictions are often accompanied by mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, suicidal thinking and ideation. When we experience suicidal ideation, we have more than passing suicidal thoughts. We are regularly considering and planning suicide. Our mindsRead More
One of the unhealthy emotional responses we find ourselves habitually turning to is transference. We take the pain of one issue and transfer it onto another issue, or onto another person. We deflect our feelings from something we don’t want to face and put it onto something that is perhaps easier to deal with. SometimesRead More