Family therapy is one of the most beneficial and useful tools available to us in recovery. Addiction doesn’t affect the addict alone. It impacts the entire family, so much so that addiction is often considered a family disease. We can inherit addictive traits and behaviors from our families, and even when only one family member…
Seeing us struggle with addiction is a painful experience for our loved ones. They can feel totally powerless to help us conquer this debilitating illness. They might be afraid to confront us about our problem, for fear we will react out of anger and then push them away altogether. They want to help us, but…
Those of us living with addiction and mental health issues are no strangers to isolating ourselves. Many of us go to great lengths to avoid people and having to interact with them. We find ways to survive on a daily basis without venturing out in public. For example, we have everything delivered to our homes…
The recovery process can be a rigorous and demanding process, full of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual challenges that are often brand new to us. We can find ourselves overwhelmed and anxious with the whole undertaking. One of the things designed to help us through the process is group therapy, which like individual therapy, can…
When we’re working towards recovery, one of the most important things we can do is reprogram our subconscious mind, which governs 95% of our reality –the majority of our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, patterns and cycles. It is basically the foundation for our manifestation. It’s where all of our emotional information is stored – our fears,…
Our patterns of self-sabotage and self-destructiveness are often caused by our fears, our internal feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, self-rejection and self-blame. We hold ourselves back and keep ourselves small because we feel that’s all we deserve. We haven’t yet actualized our potential or seen the value of our worth. To stop our cycles of self-sabotage,…
Sadness is a natural, common human emotion, and those of us living with addiction and mental health issues are no strangers to it. We experience sadness from the pain of our traumatic experiences, from our relationships, from the losses we’ve sustained. Learning to work with our sadness consciously and mindfully enables us to move through…
Many of us struggling with addiction also struggled with mental health issues long before we became aware of our addictions setting in. We may have been living with mental illnesses since childhood, often without realizing it. What are some ways in which we harm our mental health? Knowing these things can help bring us more…
Addiction can harden us and make us lose our connection to our inner selves. We can struggle to hear the voice of our intuition. We can lose our compassion and kindness. We can lose the understanding, acceptance and patience we once had with ourselves and others. We can become cynical, negative, bitter and resentful. We…
Our experience with addiction and mental health issues can be profoundly traumatic and life-altering. We can find that we disconnect from entire parts of us. We lose connection to our true selves. We can feel totally confused about who we are and what our purpose in life is. We feel devoid of meaning. We struggle…