Addiction is still quite stigmatized in our communities, in our larger societies, and in our mainstream culture. There are stereotypes and misconceptions that fuel this stigmatization, keeping those who don’t identify as addicts from fully understanding what it is we actually experience when struggling with addiction. In many ways, addiction is judged and demonized, inRead More
Many of us working to recover from addiction have not only personal healing work to do but also work to heal our relationships. Our mental and emotional health, including our struggles with addiction, are greatly impacted by the health of our relationships. When our relationships are fractured and estranged, they can play a major roleRead More
One thing we learn in our recovery is just how widespread the misunderstanding and misinformation continue to be around both addiction and mental illness. People who don’t struggle with addiction often don’t have the information, experience or understanding to really comprehend what we’re going through, and sometimes they can’t connect with us in real waysRead More
Emotional Conditioning As recovering addicts and people struggling with mental health issues, one of the emotional patterns we’ve adopted over the years is that of emotional suppression. We’ve been taught that expressing how we feel is a sign of weakness, and that we’re stronger and more well-adapted if we keep difficult things to ourselves. We’reRead More
Many of us struggling with addiction and mental illness are dealing with energies of self-destructiveness, self-sabotage and self-betrayal, energies that are directing and informing everything going on in our lives. When we’re self-betraying, we don’t love and accept ourselves for who we are. We’re betraying ourselves in all kinds of ways, both big and small,Read More
Our experiences with addiction are full of the coping mechanisms we use in order to try to make things easier on ourselves, to try and escape our pain, to self-medicate and distract ourselves from the issues we feel are too painful to think about. Staying in denial and lying to ourselves are two of theRead More
As recovering addicts, many of us have had experiences in our partnerships, friendships and family relationships where the other person simply couldn’t understand what we were going through, and this can be a uniquely challenging experience that adds to our struggles with addiction and mental illness. Self-Isolation Not having a community of people to shareRead More
Many of us living with addiction and mental illness who have tried therapy in the past are resistant to trying again because we had a negative experience or didn’t feel as though it was helpful for us. We assume that our past experiences will predict our future ones, and we become convinced that nothing canRead More
Compensating for Loneliness As recovering addicts, we’ve experienced using our drugs of choice for various different reasons and to fill countless different kinds of emotional voids. For many of us, our addictions have become our means of compensating for the loneliness and emptiness we feel. We seek companionship, solace and comfort in our drugs ofRead More
Those of us living with mental illness and addiction are no strangers to experiencing detours in our lives and our recovery. We can feel disappointed and frustrated when things don’t go as planned, when unexpected things come up, and when we don’t meet our own expectations. We can feel impatient with ourselves and disappointed inRead More