Even though relapse is a common occurrence during the recovery process, it can nonetheless be painful and disappointing for both recovering addicts and all the people who support and care about them. We have high expectations for ourselves as we work towards sobriety. When we fall short of these expectations, some of which are impossibleRead More
Oftentimes we’re so focused on the day to day of our addictions, our drugs of choice and how to score our next high, the difficult life circumstances we’re incurring because of our addictions, the effects our addictions are having on our relationships and on our lives overall, that we don’t always realize how much ourRead More
Many of us living with addiction develop patterns of rejecting ourselves and internalizing all of the stigmatization of addiction in our culture. We’re taught by our families that addicts are bad people, that addiction is equated with immorality, and that addicts use their illnesses as an excuse for bad behavior. We start to demonize ourselvesRead More
Many of us struggling with addiction and mental health issues find ourselves in toxic, unhealthy and even abusive relationships. We attract these relationships into our lives because of our own feelings of unworthiness, our own self-rejection and insecurity. We don’t believe we deserve partners who value us and treat us well. We don’t believe weRead More
As recovering addicts, there are many mental and emotional patterns that we fall into that can threaten our sobriety and lead us back to relapse and self-destruction. Negativity, worry, self-doubt, pessimism and cynicism can all hurt our recovery by convincing us that our efforts are futile, that we’re not strong enough to recover, and thatRead More
Many of us struggling with addiction and mental illness are also coping with wounded egos and all the fears that come with our woundedness. We fear we’re not good enough. We fear we’re in competition with other people. We feel easily threatened by other people and inferior when we think we’re falling short. When we’reRead More
The decision to have children when we’re in recovery can be a complex, emotional and difficult one for many of us. We’re afraid of passing our addictions and mental health issues down to our children. We desperately don’t want them to have the same painful experiences that we’ve had. We’re afraid we won’t be ableRead More
Among the different kinds of trauma we experience, the ways in which we’re abandoned can have some of the most painful effects on us. When someone we love and look up to abandons us, we lose our sense of security and stability. We lose our ability to feel grounded and centered within ourselves. Feeling abandonedRead More
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). When you want to give up, please don’t. Please remember that this struggle is temporary. It doesn’t make up the entirety of your life story. It does not have to define you. It does not need to restrict, limitRead More
As we work to recover, we realize that no matter how far we might have fallen throughout our struggles with addiction, no matter how ashamed of ourselves we might have been, there is incredible power in having lived and survived our experiences. There is always something positive to be culled from the painful things we’veRead More