Healing from our addictions and mental health issues requires that we make certain sacrifices and leave certain things behind. It can be a huge challenge, and it can feel like an uncomfortable and painful process full of growing pains and discomfort. There will be some things for which we’ll have to undergo a grieving process.…
Many of us living with addiction often find ourselves in relationships with other addicts. This often happens because like attracts like; we attract to us what we are experiencing internally. We manifest our circumstances, including our relationships, based on our energy and beliefs. We attract other people who are struggling with similar fears, limiting beliefs…
The recovery process can be a complicated one with multiple different challenging emotions. We can experience depression, anxiety, deep sadness, fear, stress and overwhelm as we’re recovering. We’re tempted to think that all the hard work is done once we complete treatment or get through withdrawal, but in reality, our work is just beginning. We…
When we undertake the recovery process, there are many fears we have to confront and move through in order to come out on the other side of healing. One of our fears is the loss of our independence. We might be worried that asking for help makes us weak and dependent upon other people. We…
As we move through the recovery process and learn more about our mental health issues, we start to see that many of our fears are not based on truth but rather on illusion. We are consumed with fear about things we don’t actually need to be afraid of. We feel threatened by things that don’t…
Being unable to forgive ourselves is often a symptom of our shame and our fear of inadequacy. We feel our mistakes, wrongdoings and shortcomings are unforgivable. We feel inadequate and undeserving of love, understanding, kindness and forgiveness. We feel unworthy. We carry our shame with us for years of our lives, often for things that…
Addiction is so destructive that it can totally transform our lives, sometimes in devastating ways. It changes our relationships, ending some of them altogether. It completely changes our relationship with ourselves, our self-perception, and how we deal with ourselves. When we’re coming out on the other side of addiction, it’s natural to want to recreate…
Learning how to live in recovery, how to abstain from our addictive substances and behaviors, has a lot to do with healing our self-destructiveness. If we aren’t able to shed our instincts towards self-destruction, we might always be driven back to the addictions that we used as a form of escape from our pain. How…
When addiction has taken over our lives, we’ve become so accustomed to all of the difficult circumstances and painful emotions that we can forget there is another way to live altogether. It is actually possible for us to feel at peace and to be happy. We can feel grounded and secure. We can regain our…