When our loved one is struggling with addiction, it can feel unbearably painful to watch them as they self-destruct and continually hurt themselves. We might have tried everything we can think of to help them, or we may have felt it was best not to get involved but then felt guilty for feeling like we […]
Category: Resource Center
The Ways We Hurt Our Loved Ones
Our addictions not only harm us, they also adversely affect our loved ones. Addiction rips apart our lives and the lives of everyone who cares about us. Since we don’t live in isolation, our addiction can touch anyone who has any involvement in our lives. Our partners, friends, family members and co-workers can all be […]
How Can Mindfulness Help Us Prevent Relapse?
When we are struggling with addiction, we very often have not yet learned the important practice of mindfulness. Our addictive behaviors hinge on our lack of mindfulness. Rather than mindfully dealing with our thoughts and emotions, we bury them under distractions of all kinds. Our drugs and addictive behaviors turn our focus away from our […]
The Sacrifices We Make in Recovery
Beginning the recovery process is a demanding and challenging undertaking. We have to be ready to do the rigorous emotional work. We also have to be willing to make certain sacrifices. When we make the ultimate choice that our health and peace of mind are most important to us, there are some things we will […]
How Does Trauma Impact Our Life Cycles?
When we’ve lived through trauma, we often find ourselves in life cycles where we’re repeating the same patterns and experiencing the same recurring life issues. When we analyze these cycles, we can see just how they were influenced by our trauma. What are some of the ways in which trauma can impact our life cycles? […]
Confronting Our Trauma
The hardest part of the healing process may be taking the very first step – confronting our trauma. Very often our addictions rely on the denial of our trauma and the avoidance of our pain. We bury our emotions under our addictions to try to escape them. The substances and behaviors we’re dependent upon become […]
How Are We Affected by Trauma?
Many of us experience some kind of trauma in our lives, and we’re all affected differently by it. We each develop unique thought patterns, behaviors, fears and emotional responses that can all be impacted by our trauma. What are some of the ways in which we are affected by our traumatic experiences? Trauma can be […]
Healing from Trauma
One of the core elements of our recovery process is working to heal from the traumatic experiences we’ve endured in our lives. Our addiction and mental health issues are traumatic in and of themselves, so we’re often attempting to heal from multiple events and issues. This process can be an overwhelming and daunting one, but […]
Why is Fellowship Important?
Fellowship is a core value for many treatment centers and support groups. Our approach to recovery is based on the premise that we are stronger together, that we are meant to operate in community and partnership with one another, and that we have much to learn from our shared experience. Why is fellowship so important […]
Avoiding Toxic People
Recovering from our addictions requires some necessary lifestyle changes to reinforce our goals of sobriety and to keep ourselves on track. There are some elements of our daily lives and our environments that derail our progress and pose a threat to our sobriety. When it comes to our interpersonal relationships, we want to learn to […]