Addiction has a way of sneaking up on us and overpowering us, overtaking our lives and robbing us of our happiness and purpose. While it can be hard to detect, there are some key signs we can be mindful of, that can alert us when there might be a problem. We can learn these signs […]
Category: QA
Why is Happiness Important for Recovery?
As we’re working to heal, we learn that recovery is about more than sobriety. Abstinence is an important element of shedding our dependence on our addictive substance or behavior, but we need to tackle our recovery holistically to give us the best chance of being successful. Happiness is one of the most important ingredients in […]
How Does Addiction Steal Our Identity?
Living with addiction, it can be incredibly easy to forget who we are. Our addictions and the lifestyles we create around them take over our entire lives. We give all of our energy to prioritizing our addictions and making sure we can get the high we feel we need. When we’re addicted to a substance […]
Can Panic Journaling Help Me?
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Many of us in recovery are familiar with journaling, but we may be less familiar with panic journaling. What is it, and how can it help us? Panic journaling is the practice of journaling during a panic attack, […]
How Can I Help Myself During a Panic Attack?
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Those of us who live with panic attacks know just how intense, all-consuming and terrifying they can be. We can find ourselves totally overpowered by the fear, sadness and shame we’re feeling. We can feel as though we’re […]
How Do I Fill the Voids Within Me?
Our addictions very often develop from our need to fill the voids we feel within ourselves. We feel unfulfilled and unsatisfied in our lives. We feel lost, empty and incomplete. These feelings are so unsettling and cause us so much anxiety and uneasiness that we feel desperate to escape them and distract ourselves from them. […]
How Can We Stop Self-Medicating?
Self-medicating is the process by which we use addictive substances and behaviors to numb the pain of our emotional issues, mental illnesses and difficult life challenges. We use drugs, alcohol, sex and gambling to cope with our anxiety, depression, panic attacks and other mental health issues. We use our go-to drugs of choice to try […]
Why Do We Grieve?
Living with addiction and mental illness means we’ve likely sustained some form of grief in our lives. Sometimes it is our grief that is the catalyst for our addictive patterns. We use our addictions to try to escape the intense pain we’re feeling from our grief. Grief, like depression, can be debilitating and cause us […]
How Can I Cope with My Grief?
Grief is one of the emotions we struggle with the most when living with addiction and mental illness. We’re often confused about how to deal with it, as it can be so overwhelming and overpowering. Our grief can be intense and palpable. We can feel it as a heavy companion that stays with us throughout […]
Why Do We Abuse Ourselves?
Our addictions are often accompanied by self-harm and self-abuse. They are themselves a form of self-abuse, as we do harmful and dangerous things to ourselves when we are driven by our addictions. Our dependence on addictive substances, behaviors and relationships, along with our deep unhappiness and fear, make us treat ourselves with unkindness, even cruelty. […]