Category: QA

 When we’ve been struggling with addiction and mental illness, we often will fall into patterns of isolating ourselves and avoiding any kind of social interaction and interpersonal connection. We’re afraid to confide in people lest they judge us more than we’re already judging ourselves. We’re afraid of being told to just get over our depression, […]

As we learn more about our addictions, we come to discover that they are not just extreme attachments to substances and behaviors, they are also our way of distracting ourselves from our pain. They are our attempt at trying to escape from it. We run from our pain. We bury and suppress the painful memories […]

As we’re working to heal, something that often causes us confusion is knowing whether or not we should move on from the past, how we should let it go, and when we should be moving on from it. We don’t want to get stuck in an endless loop of our painful memories, constantly replaying them […]

Very often our patterns, especially our patterns around addiction and mental illness, are so ingrained within us that they’ve become second nature. They become our impulsive, automatic, default, go-to behaviors. They’re part of who we are, how we function in life, and how we treat ourselves. So many of our patterns are self-destructive, full of […]

When our loved ones are suffering from addiction and mental illness, our instinct is to protect them from harm, to shield them from hurting themselves more, and to rescue them from their pain and self-destructiveness. We want to fix their problems for them. We want to save them from themselves. While these instincts are normal, […]

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Our traumas are some of the most debilitating and painful experiences we’ll go through in our lives, and we can be totally destabilized and overpowered by them, especially if we don’t have the skills to be able to process […]

As we’re working to recover, we’re being called to make important changes in our lives, to create new patterns in our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and to explore all of the choices we’ve made thus far in order to learn how to make healthier ones. We’re being invited to explore our self-destructive tendencies, our inclination […]

Our addictions and mental health issues bring us a great deal of stress, turmoil and anxiety. We can be consumed by the negativity and toxicity of our harmful patterns, our difficult relationships and our challenging circumstances. We can find ourselves feeling so overwhelmed that we react with intense panic, anger or volatility. We can find […]

The stories we hear of young people experimenting with drugs and overdosing from them are becoming all too common. It’s so distressing to think of young people in that much pain that they’re willing to risk their lives, and it’s so unfortunate that they don’t know the life-threatening risks of experimenting with drugs, that they’re […]

Our struggles with addiction can cause us to form a self-perception that is dominated by the shame and insecurities we feel as addicts. We think of ourselves in terms of our mistakes and regrets, our shortcomings, wrongdoings and transgressions. We identify so strongly with our illnesses that we allow them to become the bulk of […]