Trauma does not have to occur by abuse alone…

Resiliency is the essence of a global positive framework…

Resiliency is not gender-, age-, or intellectually specific…

Boundaries are, in simple terms, the recognition of personal space.

This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been,...

In addition to reaching out for help, you will also need to reach within yourself. Your biggest ally will be your emotions. Through them, you will learn more about what really happened to you, how...

You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the...

I wanted to say all these things about how you just have to hold on to the things you love and let go of all the rest.

Was that the best You can do?” This god, to whom I was desperately sending burnt offerings of my own humiliation, couldn’t send an avenging angel or a wise man imparting wisdom? All You can...

It is one thing to know about your dysfunctional habits but quite another to change them.

The initial journey towards sobriety is a delicate balance between insight into one’s desire for escape and abstinence from one’s addiction.

That was the crux. You. Only you could work on you. Nobody could force you, and if you weren’t ready, then you weren’t ready, and no amount of open-armed encouragement was going to change that.

Life isn’t like a Full House episode. There isn’t going to be an easy out to every conflict. There is no milkman, paperboy, or evening TV. There are good moments and bad moments and not...

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.

Recovery feels like shit. It didn’t feel like I was doing something good; it felt like I was giving up. It feels like having to learn how to walk all over again.

But no matter how much evil I see, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that there is much more light than darkness.

Try never to abandon hope for if you do, hope will surely try to abandon you.

Reflecting on this, Albert LaChance recognized an opportunity—what if the work he and so many others found so fruitful in the 12-Step recovery programs could be expanded to an ecological, a global, or even a...

There’s a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

…there is a saying used in twelve-step programs and in most treatment centers that “Relapse is part of recovery.” It’s another dangerous slogan that is based on a myth, and it only gives people permission...

Reality may not be what you want it to be, but it is the reality you now must face. You can deny this reality and try to wish it away, or you can accept it...

They sought the pain they knew so well and called it love.

Mom and dad probably told you I’ve been arrested. I’m innocent. I want you to know that.

There comes a time. The pain of existence transcends the fear of change. There comes a time.

anxiety becomes high energy when taken to the light. For me, it worked like this: I used to live in a constant state of anxiety, worrying about the past and the future. Now I do...

I chose to share both the good and the bad parts of my story, and of my imagination, so that it might help even one person realize that there is hope. You are not alone....

Hollowness: that I understand. I’m starting to believe that there isn’t anything you can do to fix it. That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have...

The world has long ceased to be the author of your anguish.

Authentic inspiration endows individuals with mental or spiritual energy which they are then able to transform into positive action. It can make all the difference between a man, woman, or child allowing despair to permanently...

Big mistakes are an outstanding opportunity to showcase your ability to recover and have grace under pressure.

OK, it’s over.” Maybe never. Maybe sooner than I know. I recently told Dr. Driscoll that I feel the beginnings of feeling OK, that this is the right path.

Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.

When I learned about the gray existing between the black and white of absolute terms, I began to experience more peace. The more I expanded my gray areas (more than 50 shades), the more peace...

World’s definition of successmaterial validation of selfcold and naked substitutefor inner warmth and beauty.

Anyhow, even though I might go out on a date with a boy, emotionally I just wouldn’t be able to concentrate. I’d be smiling and chatting away, and my mind would be floating around somewhere...

The most important thing in defining child sexual abuse is the experience of the child. It takes very little for a child’s world to be devastated. A single experience can have a profound impact on...

You were sick, but now you’re well again, and there’s work to do.

Once you commit and decide that there is no turning back, you’ll find the strength.

Resentment is like a drug. Once you pick it up, it will only get worse and worse until you surrender and do the work to let it go.

Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking of what we want to become. Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking about who we don’t ever want to be again. Everything we do is part of who we...

My hand-stitched wings itchto take flightto test the winds of changethat inevitably blow at the end of a cycle.

You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town

Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes.Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after...

Acceptance” is the most beautiful word in the English language.

If you are looking for love under rocks or bringing home water moccasins, you might be confusing love and pain.

But it is hazardous and, I believe, counterproductive to become frozen in time by an obsession with past wrongs and errors.

If I was lonely, if I was afraid of being alone, then why abandon myself? Why run to someone else looking to give myself the thing that only I could give? I wanted to escape...

I wrote in my journal about how good I felt when I was not living under Ed’s control. Then, when I really felt like giving up, I read these pages and realized that I was...

Another page turns on the calendar, April now, not March……….I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world…I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living...

We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.