You Can’t Help People Who Don’t Want to be Helped

You can't help someone who isn't ready to be helped and isn't ready to step up. This is a hard lesson I've had to learn over the years. I still struggle with it and it stings to "give up" on someone. It's not really giving up but I can't keep using all my mental strength…

In the Creativity Dumps

I need to get a kickstart on my writing career. This past year, after quitting my job at the gas station, I've endured fibro flares and complete lack of attention. Oh, and mood swings per usual. No thanks to the pain clinic, I'm back into the swing of things. Things are great mentally, not so…

Vanished

There’s nothing you can say to me that I haven’t said to myself, much harsher, with blades, and drugs, and self spoken hate.   The shame, and the guilt eat me alive, every night my head drops.   I haven’t forgiven myself for the fights we fought, the fights I caused, with my temper, with…

The Ignored Ones: Children of Addicts

In the United States, about 8.7 million kids under the age of 17 live in a household with at least one parent battling with addiction. This data was combined was from 2009 to 2014. This doesn’t even include the recent rise in opiate users. It’s time to give these children a voice. It’s time we…

Let’s Talk About: Addiction & Stigma

Stigma is a petty little creature lurking behind every person who struggles with mental illness on a daily basis and anyone who has struggled with addiction. The media portrays addicts as junkies laying in a gutter, women selling their bodies for sex, men violent on intoxication. Addicts are depicted as bodies with no depth and…

Treatment of Addicts (Part 2)

I stole this gem from Nick at Basically Sober. I urge you to check him out, read his fantastic posts, and subscribe, especially if you are an addict. He writes truthful mini memoirs about his heroin addiction. His stories are insightful, raw, and honest.  Treatment of Addicts (Part 2) written by: Nick Wilt “What could…

Brain Hacks: Addiction Edition

The biggest aspect of maintaining sobriety is battling your triggers. But there are simple hacks that you can use to override those cravings by replacing them with healthy habits and hobbies. Up until the end of the 20th century, it was believed that our brains were shaped when we were born. Our emotions, habits, and…

3 Alternatives to the 12-Step Program

For decades, it’s been a popular belief that the only path to sobriety and recovery was through the Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous programs. The idea that AA or NA is the end-all-be-all of sobriety is collapsing. The founders of the Alcoholic Anonymous program originated from a Christian Evangelical movement that was coined the Oxford…

Is Addiction a Choice or a Disease: Introduction to My Addiction

There’s so much judgment when it comes to addiction and there’s never a fair assessment. A person chose to do the drugs, so we shake our fingers at them. We feed them shame without considering the reality of the situation. For me, it was a common escape from reality but not only that. I wanted…