We have certain thought patterns and emotional patterns that can contribute to our addictions because we’re turning to these patterns as coping mechanisms rather than confronting the issues fueling our addictions head on. Among these destructive patterns are our avoidance, our suppression, and our denial. What are we avoiding? What are we suppressing? What areRead More
When we have loved ones who struggle with addiction, there are multiple different ways in which we enable them and help to facilitate their addictive patterns. One of the ways we do this is by assuming responsibility, both for our loved ones and for their addictions. We blame ourselves for their hardships, for their badRead More
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). For many of us, the story of our life experience entails feeling as though we’ve lost ourselves, at one point or another along our journey. We’ve lost ourselves to our addictions and mental illnesses. We’ve lost ourselves to ourRead More
Sometimes self-care is something we struggle to prioritize in our daily lives because we assume everything else is more important – our obligations and responsibilities, our families and loved ones, our jobs and finances, our recovery program. What we often don’t realize is that without self-care, the health and efficiency of everything else, especially ourRead More
Many of us struggling with addiction find ourselves addicted to more than one substance or behavior over the course of our experience with addiction, and over time our drug of choice can sometimes transition from one thing to another, even in recovery. The underlying cause behind this change can be different for each of us,Read More
As we come to learn through our own struggles with addiction, sometimes people grappling with addiction just aren’t ready to do the work needed to recover. We might find that we need to separate ourselves from loved ones in order to protect ourselves, both energetically and emotionally, and from danger and harm. Our loved onesRead More
Addiction is a form of self-destruction that, just like self-harm, feeds off of our mental and emotional health issues, our unresolved pain, and our self-hate and insecurity. Many of us who identify as addicts also self-harm in one way or another, by cutting or hitting ourselves, risking our safety by engaging in dangerous behaviors, orRead More
Many of us struggling with addiction, along with experts and professionals, believe that addiction is a lifelong illness with no cure, and that once we’ve developed an addiction to a substance or behavior, we will always be addicted to it. Our addiction can be in remission when we’re in recovery, but we would still technicallyRead More
One of the reasons why our addictions and mental illnesses affect us so powerfully is that everything we go through, every issue, challenge, difficulty and crisis, affects us not only mentally and emotionally but also energetically. Our energy is comprised of everything we do, think and feel. It is our fears, our pain, our sensitivitiesRead More
Our addictions and mental health issues contribute to the formation of some very unhealthy and toxic habits, habits that we perpetuate over the course of our lives and that become part of our everyday routines and our lifestyles. The more we repeat our habits, the more ingrained they become, until we’re often not even awareRead More