Category: QA

Many of us living with addictions and mental health issues believe on a fundamental level that we are inadequate, that we are unworthy, that we are undeserving of happiness. We believe we are unlovable because deep down we don’t love ourselves. These beliefs are often what drive us to try to escape our pain with […]

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues we face when living with addiction. When we learn ways to manage our anxiety, we have more control over our daily lives, and we are better able to navigate the many challenges that come with mental and emotional health difficulties. Anxiety is essentially our inner […]

When we are living with addictions and mental health issues, we are often our own worst enemy and harshest critic. We adopt the voice of our inner demons and forget that they aren’t our true self. We live in fear rather than self-love. How can we change our inner voice to be our own best […]

When we are faced with an addictive urge or compulsion, there are other things we can do that are healthier and more self-protective. The more we practice giving our energy to these other healthier things, the more we’ll develop them as coping mechanisms that we can use to help us recover from our addictions. Journal […]

Mindfulness can be an invaluable tool in our recovery from addictive urges and compulsions in that it allows us to bring our conscious awareness to our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. When we are in the grips of addiction and depression, we very often are not conscious on a deep level of what we’re experiencing. We’re […]

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Many of us struggling with addictions are also living with mental health issues, and vice versa. Oftentimes we aren’t aware of the connections between the two. Many of us don’t have a deep personal understanding of why we’re struggling […]

Often when we are caught in our addictions, we haven’t yet gotten to the point where we are clear on what exactly it is we are running from that is fueling our addictions. We are obsessed with our drugs of choice, our addictive relationships and our compulsive behaviors. These things are on the surface of […]

Sometimes when we are in the midst of the cycles of our addictions, we are afraid of recovery because we think we can’t live without our addictive substances and behaviors. We associate recovery with painful withdrawal and abstinence. We dread recovery. We can choose instead to focus our energy on all the wonderful parts of […]

Many of us with addictions and mental and emotional health issues have “inner demons” we wrestle with, that cause us extreme mental and emotional distress over the years. Our inner demons are the difficult thoughts, emotions and beliefs we’ve developed, that can often morph into obsessions, complexes, neuroses and phobias. They are what keep you […]

Many of us suffer from low self-esteem, and our addictions, depression and other mental health issues can contribute to it, compound it and exacerbate it. The self-image we’ve created for ourselves is often tainted by our fears of inadequacy, unworthiness and inferiority. We’re afraid that we don’t measure up, that we’re not good enough, that […]