If you or a loved one is struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). As we’re working to recover, many of us are dealing not only with our own recovery but with that of our loved ones as well. Very often, our family members, partners, and friends areRead More
How we handle our emotions are the result of the emotional conditioning we’ve been programmed with, from our families, from our culture, and from the messages we absorb from all around us. Many of our emotional responses are based on this emotional programming that we’ve adopted over the years. Our emotional patterns are often subconscious,Read More
Self-Abandonment and Disconnection So much of our recovery work is learning to connect with ourselves and go deeper within ourselves to find out more about who we are. Our experiences with addiction and mental health issues are linked to this disconnection from the inner self that so many of us suffer from. We don’t knowRead More
As we’re working to heal from addiction and mental illness, one thing we want to make sure we’re confronting is how self-critical we are. Many of us live with an inner critic that is constantly putting us down and making us feel as though we’re inadequate and unworthy. Our natural responses to our inner criticRead More
The importance of accepting our complex inner worlds and listening to our emotions, even the painful ones. In recovery, we can often fall into the pitfall of over-emphasizing positive thinking. This overemphasis can cause us to judge our emotions and label them as either good or bad, positive or negative, correct or incorrect. We’re doingRead More
The losses we experience, and the accompanying grief, can be such a huge blow to us that we suffer in extreme ways, with both our mental health and our addictions taking a turn for the worse. We struggle with depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, insomnia and eating disorders. We often increase our drug use andRead More
Our addictions and our relationship fears are often linked and can fuel and exacerbate each other. When we’re in unhealthy relationships and experiencing excessive fear within those relationships, we’re more likely to turn to our addictions for comfort and solace, and we’re more likely to experience spikes in our mental illnesses. Similarly, when our addictionsRead More
Our addictions can manifest from different mental and emotional patterns, many of which we aren’t conscious of, that are operating under the surface of our awareness. These patterns impact us in strong ways and contribute to the development of our very self-destructive addictive cycles. One of our most common patterns is our tendency to suppressRead 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
The human brain is uniquely complex. With a capacity for self-awareness, memory, consciousness, and empathy, the human brain sets us apart and allow us to rise above animal instinct. We are not born with all the ability needed to fully process the world around us. Rather, it takes years of development for the billions ofRead More