When we look back on our addiction recovery journey, we realize it has given us so much. We’ve been supported, nurtured and guided along the way by friends and family, therapists, sponsors, doctors and caregivers. We’ve been encouraged and motivated when we felt down on ourselves, when we felt weak in the face of ourRead More
Our struggles with addiction can cause us to be filled with doubt, doubts about ourselves and who we are as addicts, doubts about the future and all the uncertainty it holds, doubts about our ability to recover and to be happy. When we feel doubt, we’re often consumed with worry, anxiety and panic, painful manifestationsRead More
Those of us struggling with addiction and mental health issues are no strangers to panic attacks and to the debilitating, paralyzing pain of panic. Sometimes when we think of our panic, we’re only considering the symptoms, the intense fear, the physical manifestations of hyperventilating and accelerated heart rates, our racing thoughts, and our inability toRead More
Our inner demons are the thoughts, feelings and beliefs we feel cause us the most pain, that we obsess about and dwell on, that we feel haunted, consumed and tortured by. We feel unable to escape the voices of our inner demons that are constantly telling us what to do, how to think and howRead More
When struggling with addiction, sometimes our sense of self-respect becomes tainted because we feel so ashamed of ourselves for the many things we’ve done wrong, for the ways in which we’ve hurt people, for the countless mistakes we’ve made. We can’t believe we’ve done the things we’ve done. We’re consumed by regret. We’re self-punishing andRead More
Many of us struggle to be able to appreciate our progress because we’re so accustomed to being hard on ourselves, judging ourselves harshly and criticizing our every move. When it comes to our recovery from addiction, we often tend to focus more on the mistakes and regrets of the past than we do on theRead More
Much of the pain we experience related to our addictions and mental health issues comes from the emotional information stored in our subconscious minds, from the old programming stored there that is influencing how we think, feel and operate. When we are living our lives based on the limiting beliefs and fears of our unhealedRead More
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Some of the defining characteristics of addiction are our tendencies to engage in reckless and risky behaviors, to endanger ourselves and put ourselves in harm’s way, and to fail to see the consequences of our choices and actions. WeRead More
A huge part of the recovery process entails reflecting on where we’ve been holding ourselves back, what beliefs and thought patterns have been hurting us, what emotional responses, behaviors and choices have been limiting us and restricting our growth. Without undertaking this important process of self-reflection and introspection, we’ll only continue to hurt ourselves andRead More
Addiction is sometimes considered to be an illness of disconnection with the remedy therefore being one of connection. When struggling with addiction, we tend to disconnect in various ways. We become disconnected from our inner selves by treating ourselves with self-hatred and judgment. We disconnect from other people when we isolate ourselves, when we chooseRead More