Category: Recovery

Abusing and overusing substances such as narcotic drugs and alcohol can cause us to become mentally, emotionally and physically dependent upon them. We feel as though we can’t live without them, and our dependence can very quickly and easily lead to a debilitating addiction. It is not uncommon for us to start to think that […]

The process of learning to handle addictive urges and the temptation of our addictions is much like learning to handle our difficult emotions. We have to become better able to sit through the discomfort and the anxiety they can bring. We have to turn off our default instinct to run from the unpleasantness. We have […]

Our intuition is one of the best internal mechanisms we have for self-protection. Our intuition, and the instincts we develop based on it, alert us to danger, tell us when we need to change course, and show us how to redirect ourselves. Our addictions can cloud our thinking and manipulate our emotions so much that […]

If we allow it to, regret can totally consume us and the pain of it can contribute to our addictions and depression. Our cycles of addiction can bring us more regret as we accumulate years of self-destructing, making mistakes and hurting other people. Regret can be a bitter poison that eats away at our joy […]

When we’re in the grips of addiction, one of the things we’re known to do is distance ourselves from the people trying to help us. We prioritize our addiction, so we push away anything or anyone threatening to get in the way of it. The separation can be especially hard on our loved ones who […]

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? […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]