When it comes to addiction, the addicts themselves aren’t the only ones affected. Their families and loved ones are also profoundly impacted, sometimes irreparably so. Addiction takes over our lives in various ways, and one of the ways it can be most destructive is how volatile it can make people. Addicts can be hostile, abusive, […]
Category: Resource Center
Self-Harm: Why We Hurt Ourselves
Many of us living with addictions and mental health issues also have a problem with self-harm – self-destructive behaviors which are linked to our deeper emotional problems and which compound and perpetuate them. We might hit, cut or burn ourselves or otherwise cause ourselves physical harm. We might be emotional cutters, where we are masochistic […]
Seeing Things from Our Higher Power’s Perspective
One of the ways we can approach our mental and emotional healing is to try to replace our ego-based thinking with the perspective our higher power might see us with. When we are facing difficult challenges, we can ask ourselves how would my spirit view this? What would my higher power say about this? In […]
Why is Isolation So Bad for Us?
When we are struggling with addictions and mental health issues, many of us have a tendency to isolate ourselves from other people. We retreat from the world and from our loved ones. We stop participating in the things we once enjoyed. We don’t communicate with other people about how we’re doing, and they often worry […]
Accepting Our Flaws
When it comes to healing from our addictions and mental health issues, we are recovering from many different things, including the negative, self-hating perspectives we have of ourselves. To really love ourselves and heal, we have to learn to accept our flaws and weaknesses. This is one of the hardest things for us to do, […]
Why Do We Procrastinate on Our Health?
It’s not uncommon for us to know that we have a problem, with drugs, alcohol, another substance, or an addictive behavior or relationship, but avoid dealing with it. We are aware that we have a problem but procrastinate on our health. We postpone making a therapy appointment, researching treatment centers or reaching out for help. […]
Bingeing and Self-Destruction
Bingeing is commonly misunderstood as being simply an inability to control one’s self or a problem with greed and gluttony. Just like with any addictive or compulsive behavior, there are often deeper meanings behind people’s bingeing. Using food bingeing as an example, bingers will eat long past when they are full, until they are uncomfortable, […]
How Can I Learn to Embrace my Pain?
When it comes to our pain, our usual and customary response is to want to reject it, remove it from ourselves, and feel it as little as possible. Our depression, anxiety and other mental health issues are often the responses we have to our pain when we haven’t learned healthy strategies for coping with it. […]
Understanding Bullying
We usually associate bullying with mean-spirited children picking on and abusing innocent children, but bullying is a phenomenon that happens with people of all ages, and the principles are the same for both adults and children. Many of us who experience addiction and mental health issues at one time or another have been bullied in […]
How Can I Have a More Optimistic Outlook?
When we are struggling with addictions and mental health issues, many of us have adopted negative ways of thinking that influence our behaviors, our patterns, our overall energy. How do we change our outlook to be more positive, in order to manifest more of what we want in life? Being optimistic is a habit that, […]