As we’re working to recover from our addictions, sometimes we hope that the negative emotions of our turbulent experiences with addiction will be a thing of the past. We want to believe that we’ve done the majority of our hard work, and that we’ll no longer have to be so challenged by our emotions. We’dRead More
As we’re working to recover, we begin to see striking evidence of how much addiction and drug use are normalized and even glorified in our mainstream media. Television and movies minimize the devastating effects of drug use and trivialize the harm they cause. These portrayals routinely ignore how people’s lives are negatively impacted by theirRead More
While many of us who regularly smoke weed don’t consider ourselves to be addicted to it, and while we often don’t self-identify as addicts, the costs of smoking weed can really add up, and they can take a toll on our health and our well-being in many of the same ways that other drugs andRead More
Many of us who smoke weed are convinced that marijuana can’t be addictive because it is a naturally growing plant rather than a synthetic drug. As such, we might not identify as addicts even if we fit the bill. For many of us, we can be just as dependent on smoking weed as any addictRead More
Our experiences with addiction can come with some very complex interpersonal relationship dynamics that can be very hard for us to understand. One of these dynamics is our resistance to the compassion and support of our loved ones. Most of us would probably assume that anyone would want to be helped while struggling with somethingRead More
Our struggles with addiction have a way of overpowering us and taking over our lives, so much so that they dominate the ways in which we self-identify. We come to identify ourselves as addicts and little else. We forget all about the interesting lives we lived before addiction took over our days, routines, lifestyles andRead More
When we struggle with addiction, we associate our addiction with a dependence on a particular substance or behavior. What we sometimes come to discover is that we’re not only addicted to our drug of choice and the patterns we’ve developed over the years, we’ve also come to be addicted to the drama of it all,Read More
When we think of our addictions, we tend to define them as an ongoing problem we have with an addictive substance or behavior. We know we’ve formed a dangerous dependence, but we aren’t always sure why. We usually associate our addictions with mental and emotional health issues, such as our depression and anxiety, the traumaticRead 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
As we’re working to recover from our addictions, many of us discover that one of our greatest triggers to relapsing is being bored, feeling fulfilled, and not having enough to occupy our time in useful ways. We don’t have healthy ways to express ourselves creatively. We don’t have outlets to help us stay productive andRead More