When we are starting out in recovery, many of us choose to be linked with a sponsor. We can find sponsors through our support groups, treatment centers, therapists or other trusted support systems. When we are paired with sponsors, they are usually in recovery for the same addiction types we’ve struggled with. They have firsthand… Continue Reading How Can Having a Sponsor Help Me?
Recovery support group meetings are an excellent way to connect with others in recovery. When we are first starting out on our recovery journey, we can feel very lost and alone. We can forget just how many other people are living with similar issues and struggling in similar ways. Our isolation can make us feel… Continue Reading Why Should I Go to Meetings?
Recovering from our addictions and mental health issues is one of the hardest challenges of our lives, but for some reason we feel we have to do it all by ourselves. Sometimes we’re afraid to ask for help. Sometimes we’re prideful and embarrassed about all the mistakes we’ve made. Sometimes we feel we’ve hurt people… Continue Reading Why is Support so Important for our Recovery?
When we are in recovery, it can help our healing process a great deal to reflect on the different factors in our lives that may have contributed to our addictive patterns and behaviors. Our relationships can be one of those factors and can play a crucial role in the development of our addictions. Sometimes our… Continue Reading Can Our Relationships Play a Role in Our Addictions?
When we are working to recover from our addictions and mental health issues, we often struggle with feeling regret and remorse for all the negative things we’ve done, all the mistakes we’ve made, all the ways we’ve hurt people. We feel ashamed of ourselves and struggle to forgive ourselves. We can be filled with anger… Continue Reading How Do I Stop Being So Angry with Myself?
When we are working to heal from our addictions and mental health issues, sometimes what holds us back the most are the limiting beliefs we’ve developed over the years, about ourselves and our ability to recover. What are some of the common limiting beliefs we hold, and how do we change them? One limiting belief… Continue Reading How Can I Change my Limiting Beliefs?
When we look back at our childhoods, many of us realize that our addictive patterns began when we were very young. The emotional responses, thought patterns and behaviors that are part of our addictions may have developed early on when were children. Sometimes we learn from our families and caregivers that it is better… Continue Reading Did I Become an Addict as a Child?
One of the most powerful trauma healing methods we can use in our recovery is learning to work with our inner child. As adults, we still have our inner child, or our childhood self, within us. All of the pain we experienced when we were younger is still part of us, and to heal and… Continue Reading How Can I Heal my Inner Child?
Our addictions and mental health issues can cause us to create deep rifts in our relationships. When we are using and/or depressed, we can treat the people around us in ways we might not otherwise. We might be consumed with anger, bitterness and resentment that we unleash on the people around us. We might be… Continue Reading How Do I Rebuild My Relationships?
One of the best things we can do for ourselves in recovery is create a relapse prevention plan – a plan for how we will respond to addictive urges when they hit. Very often when we’re not prepared for urges, our instinct is to respond to them the way we always did, by using. Our… Continue Reading What is my Relapse Prevention Plan?