Category: Addiction

Recovery is a long-process because you are not simply learning how to stay away from drugs. Of course, that’s of utmost importance. It’s a given. It’s a start and a pre-requisite for life change. It has to happen in order for you to move forward or to make any progress in Recovery, but there is…

Three things that I would want to tell you:  1. You matter.  Yes, YOU. Even though you feel like you have messed up too many times, or have gone way too far to ever be a person that you like again, you still matter. You are a valuable, respectable, loveable, human being. (Colossians 2:13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A13-14&version=NLT…

What keeps you sober?  Your program? Reading Literature? Meditating on Daily Devotionals? Staying fit or healthy? Reading? Sports? Traveling? Church? Your sponsor or accountability partner? Based off of what I have observed in the awesome people I have met in the Recovery community, it is usually a combination of several key things and there doesn’t…

I was recently asked if I had to choose my favorite part of sobriety, what would it be? I went with my immediate & initial cognitive response. The one that automatically popped into my head. Contentment.  That was it. If I were to have thought about it for much longer, I would have debated, went…

Many come into Recovery looking for a break.  Let’s face it. If we have sought help and are considering a major life change, chances are, we are tired. We can’t kid ourselves, though. There aren’t any Recovery programs out there that I know of that are readily handing out free passes to new miracle lifestyles or…

Recovery means different things to different people, but I would bet that we could all agree that it generally speaking- It means us, learning to live healthy, productive, peaceful, lives.  Regardless of which program we choose to follow, partake in, or interact with- Regardless of what our drug of choice is/was- Regardless of how much clean…

There are things that can hold us back in our Recovery. We can count on these things keeping us from moving forward or making any significant progress. There are certain things that will most definitely stop you dead in your tracks. Without learning how to accept and process these them, you will have a really…

After my c-section and tubal ligation, I chose not to take any pain medication stronger than the standard issued 800 mg of Ibuprofen every few hours. It did absolutely nothing. My pain remained a solid 10. On top of having latching issues and being brand new to breastfeeding a new adorable tiny human every single…

Never trust or rely on anyone. People will always let you down. I choose to walk alone. This mentality blossomed into what would later become one of my greatest ‘character defects’. My addiction turned me into a taker, a manipulator and user of people. I ‘needed’ their services, their money, or any other tangible, useful…

Call it a coping mechanism, a learned behavior, something ingrained into my psyche from listening to too many perpetuated loops of Tupac’s Me against the World… (or maybe a combination of varying amounts of all..) but when a person allows themselves to succumb to the ‘me against them’ mentality, you can expect fatal results. Yes,…

As I scroll through any one of my several news-feeds, I am reminded of my own struggles that I faced in early recovery. I can literally feel the frustration and anger from people who are withdrawing & detoxing their bodies and minds. These people are doing their very best to sort out feelings that they are now…

  I was just thinking and thought I would share with you guys. Isn’t it ironic that in early addiction we tend to live in the future. We are living fast, we want things now, we are rushing around in a hurry to have fun and find more, more, more. In late addiction we tend to…

The real lifestyle changes that Recovery has to offer will have the opportunity to begin and become active parts of our new lives: when we choose to close our apps and decide to power off our laptops; and get to work.  I know not everyone has meetings available in their area, or the type of…

To go or not to go? That is always the question during the holiday season. If you are in Recovery, the holidays can be hard. Each individual has various levels of coping skills, time in Recovery, different triggers, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses. There are too many variables to post an all-encompassing, accurate, blanket answer for everyone…

In Recovery we are taught to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness. This helps us to begin the process of living in humility; balancing living mindful, presently, and in the now yet not ever forgetting the trench in which we were pulled from, and the people who were there to help save us from ourselves. The…

  “Well, the past is playing with my head And failure knocks me down again I’m reminded of the wrong That I have said and done And that devil just won’t let me forget….” “My mistakes are running through my mind And I’ll relive my days in the middle of the night When I struggle…

I am definitely a fan of ‘alone’. I am a true introvert, and not by popular, new-age, twenty-first century, because it’s cool choice. It is simply who I am. I am not anti-social. I love the people who I am close to, I enjoy speaking and meeting new people and I am encouraged by engaging…

  I believe that in Recovery we should definitely have long-term goals etched out in our minds. We should have a rough idea of somewhere we would like to be, somewhere we could see ourselves, and things that we would like to accomplish in our lives, in the long-term, as sober humans. In early recovery…

We have to pay particular attention to how honest and truthful that we are in Recovery, holding ourselves to crazy high standards in order to ensure the best possibilities for ourselves and our future. Why? Because active addiction requires a lot of consistent dishonesty. One of the only areas left that an addict can manage…

I ran across this article from 2011 on Promises Recovery website. I am sharing directly from their page, and I think it is beneficial for anyone who is in Recovery.  Here is the link to full original article: (http://www.promises.com/articles/work-the-steps-in-recovery/) **Working the Steps Promotes Essential Values It has been said that each of the 12 Steps…

  1. HOPE- We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has…

  Everyone goes through ups and downs in life. (And if you have an addict in your life, there are sure to be lots of ups, downs, unpredictability, uncertainty, highs, lows, let-down, defeat and more.) One thing that I have learned in Recovery that I have applied to my everyday life, has been learning to…

If you are in Recovery, chances are, you know someone who cannot understand how ‘people like us’ could ever allow our lives to be transformed, taken over, and destroyed by a chemical or process addiction. They just cannot fathom being so stupid. I have heard variations of comments like similar to these: Those people are…

I am not sure that I have ever really thought about which one was harder for me. Toward the end of what would become my past life, I had built up a significant amount of anxiety in my mind about living a sober life free from drugs and what that might mean. What that might feel…