As we’re working to heal ourselves and stay committed to our sobriety, there are certain emotions that can linger well into our recovery and bring us so much turmoil and conflict that we feel tempted to use our drugs of choice just to escape them. One of these painful and destructive emotions is the anger […]
Category: Alumni
Energy Healing in Recovery
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). For many of us, recovering from addiction and mental illness entails a multipronged approach, where we’re not just relying on the traditional forms of treatment of medication, therapy and professional rehabilitation but also exploring other avenues of self-healing. We […]
Healing Subconsciously to Manage Addictive Urges in Recovery
As we embark upon our recovery journey, there are certain things that still frighten us and make us uncertain of our ability to stay sober, even after we’ve done a great deal of work and feel confident about our sobriety. One of these things is the temptation we still feel to use our drug of […]
How Our Dysfunctional Families and Our Addictions Are Connected
Many of us who identify as addicts also identify with having come from dysfunctional families. Our families were broken apart by separation, neglect, abuse and abandonment. We didn’t have healthy family dynamics, strong communication or effective conflict resolution. We grew up being traumatized by loved ones and watching others be hurt. We grew up blaming […]
Learning from Our Inner Demons
One of the things we learn in recovery is that our addictions and mental health issues have caused us to create a very disconnected, disharmonious relationship with ourselves and our inner thoughts and feelings. We resist our fears. We don’t work to heal our wounds. We don’t resolve the deep relationship issues and recurring life […]
Learning to Accept Uncertainty
As we’re working to heal ourselves, one of the obstacles we find ourselves up against is all of the uncertainty we’re feeling around the recovery process. We’re uncertain of what the future holds. We feel uncertainty about our ability to get well. We feel uncertain about the timing of how things are going for us, […]
When a Loved One Disappoints Us
As the loved ones of addicts, we know all too well the disappointment of seeing them relapse after promising us they would get clean, after making the commitment to us and to themselves to be sober. We feel they’ve let us down. We had expectations that they would be true to their word, and we’re […]
The Different Stages of Relapse
When we think of relapse, we usually associate it with the act of returning to our drug use after a period of abstinence. We think of all the painful emotions associated with it, the disappointment, shame and regret. We think of falling off the wagon and picking up our drug of choice after being so […]
Staying Fully Involved in the Recovery Process
The recovery process is something we have to commit to and then continuously recommit to if we want to stay aligned with our goals of sobriety. There are countless things that can work against us, countless obstacles we’re up against, and one of them is our tendency to start to slip in our recovery, to […]
Self-Actualization in Recovery
One of our greatest challenges in recovery is working to implement the changes we envision for ourselves and holding ourselves accountable to the goals and intentions we’ve set for ourselves. This is where self-actualization comes in, where we summon the inner motivation and drive to push ourselves to make our recovery goals a reality for […]