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? […]
Category: Recovery
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 […]
Bouncing Back from Rock Bottom
Hitting “rock bottom” is a term we give to the experience of reaching our lowest point in our addictions, when we’ve fallen so low we know we can no longer continue this way, when we realize our addictions have become unbearable, and we know we must make a change immediately if we want to survive. […]
The Importance of Making Amends
One of the hardest but most important things we can do when in recovery is try to make amends to the people we hurt as a result of our addiction. This can be extremely scary and difficult. We are filled with remorse and regret. We feel embarrassment and guilt for our actions. We feel deeply […]
Growing up with Addiction in the Family
When we witness addiction in our families, we can later find this to be reflected in some of our emotional patterns. Sometimes we ourselves become addicts, but sometimes there are other, less obvious effects. Addiction can create a great deal of turmoil in families. As a result, when we grow up witnessing it, we can […]
Every Day is a New Day
Living with addictions and mental health issues can feel like an uphill battle, like a fight we aren’t meant to win. Much of our energy goes to fighting our issues, to the relentless struggle of trying to change, and we find ourselves drained and depleted. We have a tendency to dwell on the mistakes of […]
Recognizing When a Depression is Coming and Learning Ways to Offset it
Depression can be one of the hardest things we have to live with when it comes to addiction and mental health issues. Our depression and addictions can be linked and can feed off of each other, compounding and exacerbating each other. Are there ways to recognize when a depression is coming, and are there ways […]
Choosing Clarity
Recovering from our addictions and mental health issues involves making important decisions about our wellbeing. It involves deciding that we are worth leaving behind the things causing us pain. It means deciding that we want inner peace. When we are ready to make these decisions, it is often because we have been languishing in confusion, […]
Learning About Manic Episodes
Many of us can experience manic episodes, whether or not we’ve been formally diagnosed with mania or bipolar depression. The cycles of addiction can be very similar to those of mania and bipolar depression, anyone can experience them, and they are often related. Being able to recognize manic episodes is important for moving through them […]