What We Have to Do – What We’re Blessed to Do As recovering addicts, we know all too well that the recovery process can be overwhelming, tiring and tedious at times. We feel inundated with all the work we have to do, the recovery treatment programs and steps we have to complete, the meetings weRead More
Many of us trying to recover from addiction are blocked by our fear of rehab, our fears of seeking out help, and our fears of giving up our current way of life. We’re afraid of undergoing the withdrawal process, especially if we’ve experienced any difficult symptoms before. We’re afraid of working hard only to relapseRead More
Limiting Beliefs Those of us struggling with addiction and mental health issues have adopted many limiting beliefs throughout our lives, limiting beliefs about ourselves, other people, and the world in general. One of the many common limiting beliefs we share is that people are incapable of change, and that once they’re stuck in a certainRead More
Our road to recovery is full of all kinds of problems, both foreseeable and unexpected challenges that cause us difficulty, throw a wrench in our life’s plans and make things more stressful for us. Usually our problems make us feel overwhelmed, anxious, worried and stressed out. We panic about our problems, dwell on them andRead More
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Part of our ongoing work in recovery is making sure we’re not still carrying limiting beliefs within us that don’t serve us. For many of us, these beliefs have become so ingrained in us that we’re not conscious ofRead More
Remembering Who We Are Recovering from addiction means working towards sobriety and/or abstinence while also working to heal from all of the psychological effects of our addictions. We’ve been mentally and emotionally so impacted by our addictions that our sense of self can become entirely defined by them. Our self-identity revolves around our addictions andRead More
One of the hardest parts of recovery is knowing we will be undergoing huge life-altering changes, many of which we won’t be able to predict. These changes can be hard to come to terms with. We’ve grown comfortable in our familiar patterns, and we’re used to living within the safety of our comfort zones. EvenRead More
Many of us living with addiction have at one time or another been treated with less dignity than we deserve, and we can feel dehumanized and demeaned as a result. We’re spoken to unkindly by strangers and loved ones. We’re criminalized and demonized in our larger mainstream culture and in our smaller communities. These experiences,Read More
As we’re approaching the recovery process, our fear of going into treatment can be one of the biggest impediments to our being able to heal. We avoid seeking out help and convince ourselves we don’t actually have a problem. We procrastinate on researching treatment centers and tell ourselves we’ll do it next week, then nextRead More
Sometimes as we’re doing the work to recover, we can find ourselves no longer being self-aware enough to take inventory of ourselves and our many strengths, weaknesses, gifts and challenges. We come to discover that this process of analyzing ourselves is critical to the success of our recovery, because we can catch ourselves whenever we’reRead More