Our addictions can develop for many reasons. For some of us, our addictions manifested from our lack of self-love and self-acceptance. Addiction is often about trying to numb ourselves from our pain, and for many of us that pain comes from our insecurity, our lack of self-worth and our low self-esteem. Our insecurities can come…
One of the things that can fuel our addictions is our attachment to the past and to the painful emotions that we’re holding onto from our past experiences. Being unable to let go of the past can cause us to seek refuge from our painful feelings in our addictive substances, relationships and behaviors. Sometimes we…
One of the most challenging aspects of addiction is how prevalent and widespread drugs and alcohol are in our everyday culture. Current songs, TV shows, movies and video games are inundated with them. Young people are specifically targeted with intentional marketing geared towards getting them to start using and drinking at an early age, so…
When we make the important decision to get help for our addictions, it usually comes after years of fear, indecision and putting off doing what we know we need to do for ourselves. We’ve been stuck for a long time, afraid to take the first step. We’re afraid we’ll fail. We’re afraid of doing the…
An unfortunate reality for those of us in recovery is that many of us do relapse, sometimes multiple times. There are some things we can do, however, to help prevent ourselves from relapsing. Here are a few suggestions. Consider treatment as the first step in recovery, not the last step. The work continues long after…
Being a kid is the time when you begin questioning everything around you like if a person is exhibiting unusual behavior. They may be afraid to talk to you about what they have seen or things they have heard of. It is important to be as open with your kids as possible so that you…
There are many things we can do to help ourselves during the addiction recovery process, and as important as these things are, such as therapy and professional treatment, they are only as helpful as we allow them to be with our mentality, outlook and perspective. Perhaps the most important thing we can do for ourselves…
Many of us who struggle with anxiety have developed thought patterns that contribute to and exacerbate our anxiety. Over-worrying, pessimism and catastrophizing are examples of these kinds of thought patterns. We tend to think in worst-case scenarios, and we let our worries and fears overwhelm us. Many of us also dwell on the past, bringing…
Our inner demons are the term we give the insecurities, fears, anxieties and other issues that we become fixated on, that we feel control our minds. Our inner demons can dominate our inner dialogue, to the point where it can be hard to distinguish our true inner voice from the voice of our inner demons.…
Our addictions have a lot to do with the relationship we have with our emotions, how we relate to our emotions, process them and release them. Many of us struggle with holding onto anger, sometimes for years at a time, if not our entire lives. When we have such a strong attachment to it that…