I remember how long it took me to wrap my head around the fact that I had self-hatred. I kept rationalizing that I thought of
Evidence-Based Treatment Offers Real Hope to Suffering Addicts
The addiction treatment field is shifting away from self-help recovery methods toward a more measurable recovery program. The newer methods are known as evidence-based recovery
Addiction Recovery A-Z Links Directory
I update this list annually (August 2018) as best I can. Few addiction recovery blogs last very long so I have kept ones that are
Johari’s Window and How We Heal
Above image is from Wikipedia— When talking about healing, because I am a gardener, I often speak of the need when we prune to go down
How I Made the Connection With My Inner Child
One of the techniques I used early in my recovery to get in touch with my wounded feelings was accepting my inner child. Transactional Analysis
In Recovery, Are You Being Transformed?
“Your life will be transformed when you make peace with your shadow. The caterpillar will become a breathtakingly beautiful butterfly. You will no longer have
Healing is About Learning to Love Yourself
“Healing isn’t just about pain. It’s about learning to love yourself. As you move from feeling like a victim to being a proud survivor, you
Creativity is Our Bridge to Joy
“Creativity takes the heavy mass of our lives and transforms it back into available energy. Taking the mundane or the weighted, the overlooked or the
Self-Parenting Teaches Us How to Help Others As Well As Ourselves
Having been an addictions counselor for years and in my personal recovery since 1976, I know that healing comes from within. It usually begins with
Healing Means Matching Your Inner With Your Outer
“Many of us learned that keeping busy…kept us at a distance from our feelings…Some of us took the ways we busied ourselves—becoming overachievers & workaholics—as
Facebook Groups Help Join Us Together by Sharing Our Interests
“Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends
24,000,000 Americans are in Addiction Recovery. 13% of the US Population.
Recovery support is moving from the dictates of the treatment industry to the rapidly growing field of recovery support. Treatment only happens for 11% of
Our Emotional Energies Provide Our Direction
The four types of emotional energy that we each have are creative, logic, relationship and grounding. To gather energy, we use either grounding or creative
Why Isn’t Rehab Working While Costing $35 Billion Annually?
November 24, 2017, began my 42nd year of continuous addiction recovery. What a life. I love it. In my 3rd month of recovery–January 1977–I was
The Family Roles We Adopted Set Up Patterns of Behavior
Our self-image is formed by allowing ourselves to be influenced by various authority figures. As we mature and accept the responsibility of defining ourselves, these
Rising Above Our Trauma and Finding Healing
“I’m not crazy, I was abused. I’m not shy, I’m protecting myself. I’m not bitter, I’m speaking the truth. I’m not hanging onto the past,
Our Attachment Pattern Forms Our Basic Relationship Attraction
“At its heart, Codependency is a set of behaviors developed to manage the anxiety that comes when our primary attachments are formed with people who
You Have to Become Your Own Mental Health Expert
“He thought of the PET scans he had studied, always looking for his mother, hands in his pockets, nodding as the radiologists spoke, and sometimes
Childhood Trauma is the Wound. Addiction is the Bandage.
“Your instincts may tell you that you can’t survive if you experience feelings. But they are leftover child instincts. They’re the ones that first told
ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) Directory
“When the family energy is focused on the problem of the adult rather than on the needs of the children, the results for the children
