We all have those things we don’t want to face. It might be trauma. It might be that chore we absolutely hate but needs doing. We find ways to put them off until they either go away or, more likely, they become so urgent we have cannot ignore them anymore. Often, when this happens, we…
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Humans are resilient. When faced with hardship, many people buckle down and get through. Others find new and interesting ways to address the problem. A select few give up. People naturally seek happiness and joy. Even when we are in difficult situations, we find ways to alleviate the situation. It is instinctive. After a divorce,…
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The college years can be a difficult time. For many, it is a significant transition in every way: academically, socially, and even geographically. Even once the initial shock wears off, many college students find themselves overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of college life. There is a pressure to dedicate yourself wholly to your studies…
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Things happen. Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do about it. Your job lays you off. Someone steals your car. Your rent goes up. Other times, maybe a little thought would have prevented it. You run out of gas on the way to work. You hurt someone’s feelings. You miss a bus. Either way, they happen…
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Some people claim the only way to achieve sobriety is to hit rock bottom. But what is rock bottom? It is, like pain, subjective. It is unpleasant and dehumanizing and, often, life-threatening. Rock bottom can be social, financial, mental or physical, or all of these at the same time. If you are lucky, it can…
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Is addiction inherited? Or is it a learned behavior? For the most part, it is both. Some studies show that addiction is half genetically predisposed destiny and the other half is a response to lagging skills in decision making and coping with stress and unpleasant emotions. Normalization of Addiction A 2013 University of Utah study…
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One of the hardest parts of battling addiction is the cessation of rituals. Certain things trigger the urge to use: getting up in the morning; getting into the car; coming home from work. As people living with addiction, we build our lives around their illnesses. It is the centerpiece of our existence. The rituals of…
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Substance abuse recovery is a very involved process that can be approached in many different ways. It requires those in recovery to make continuous efforts to understanding the origins of their addiction, their motivations for recovering, and any and all reasons they find themselves resistant to the recovery process or of recovering altogether. This can…
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Addiction is, by its very nature, isolating. The things we do to maintain the illness, to keep it secret and make it look normal separate us from the people in our lives. As the illness progresses, it simply becomes easier to hold ourselves apart. We stop trusting people, thinking they won’t understand, thinking they’ll judge…
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Journaling has been proven to be effective tool for combatting symptoms of depression, anxiety, and improving overall mental health. Many of us may have journaled when we were younger and then abandoned the practice as we got older, busier, and perhaps less interested. You may even be of the opinion that the introspective nature of…
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