Category: Mental Health

Many of us whose loved ones are addicts become so focused on them and their challenges that we often don’t realize our own mental and emotional health are being adversely affected by their addictions. We fail to see all the ways in which we’re being limited, held back, brought down and hurt by our loved […]

We tend to think of our addictions in much the same way we view our mental health issues, as powerful forces beyond our control, as illnesses we were born with or inherited but can’t heal from. We fail to realize that the patterns we develop, the mental and emotional habits we practice and repeat over […]

Many of us living with addiction and mental illness have developed patterns of avoiding, suppressing and resisting our emotions, in particular the ones we find most difficult to handle. When we feel stressed out and overwhelmed, depressed and afraid, confused and ashamed, our instinct is often to shut down and try to stop feeling our […]

We most commonly associate addiction with a dependence on drugs or alcohol, but addictions can also be behavioral in nature. We can find ourselves forming dependent attachments on certain behaviors such as sex, eating, gaming and gambling, attachments that can be just as intense and detrimental as our attachments to substances. We can become mentally, […]

Sometimes as we’re setting goals for ourselves, outlining our intentions and clarifying our objectives in our recovery, we forget why it is we’re working so hard to recover in the first place. When we remember the purpose of our work, the meaning behind why we’re in recovery, all the reasons why we want to be […]

As we’re coping with our addictions and mental health issues, one of our greatest challenges can be in dealing with people who don’t understand us or our illnesses. Both addiction and mental illness are common and exist within every community, ethnic group, religious affiliation, sexual orientation and socioeconomic grouping. In other words, they are universal. […]

Many of us who struggle with substance abuse also struggle with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. When the two different illnesses affect us simultaneously, they are often referred to as co-occurring disorders or dual diagnoses. Those of us suffering from these particular issues are aware of the dualistic nature of our illnesses […]

Sometimes our addictions don’t just involve substances, relationships and behaviors, they also involve our thought patterns. We develop toxic thought addictions where we’ve become so attached to certain thoughts that we can’t seem to let them go. As a result, we can develop obsessions and compulsions, intense anxiety and panic attacks, and depression. Our relentless […]

As we’re working to heal from our addictions and mental health issues, some of the most important work we do revolves around exploring our fears. Many of us have a fear-based relationship with our fears, where we try as hard as possible to avoid having to think about them, look at them or feel them. […]

Addiction is often described as being a disease of disconnection. What do we mean by this? When we are disconnected from our inner selves, from our intuition, from our purpose, we suffer a great deal. We struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. We believe the worst about ourselves and develop limiting beliefs […]