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,...

Never feel this bad again. Never come back to this place, where only a knife will do. Live a gentle and kind life. Don’t do things that make you want to hurt yourself. Whatever you...

Depression weighs you down like a rock in a river. You don’t stand a chance. You can fight and pray and hope you have the strength to swim, but sometimes, you have to let yourself...

Treatment for dependency at substance abuse treatment centers must change if alcoholism and addiction are to be overcome in our society.

The key problem I encounter working with wounded, depressed, and unhappy people is a lack of connection…starting from a disconnection from themselves and then with others. This is why love often becomes so distorted and...

When I looked at myself through the prism of awareness, great tears came as I connected with how this wounded child felt.

I’d never opened up the gas station if it had been someone else, but I know Tucker’s fond of you. It’s a shame you don’t keep in touch with the old man.

I’m here to tell you that if you get broken, it’s possible to put yourself back together. I’m here to tell you that if you get lost, it’s possible that a light will come, dancing,...

Real hope combined with real action has always pulled me through difficult times. Real hope combined with doing nothing has never pulled me through.

Nature paces its change in gradual steps, and in this time of renewal, I danced in sync to the rhythm of life.

We must be content to grow slowly. Most of us will still barely be at the beginning of our recovery by the time we die. But that is better than killing ourselves pretending to be...

Pain in this life is not avoidable, but the pain we create avoiding pain is avoidable.

Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.

It wasn’t a sign of weakness to tell what happened to me. I feel guilt no longer, only regret. The other emotions are coming around too. How much further do I need to go? I’m...

For several days, I slept. Whether this was a necessary part of physical recovery, or a stubborn retreat from waking reality, I do not know, but I woke only reluctantly to take a little food,...

The more severe the dysfunction you experienced growing up, the more difficult boundaries are for you.

Sounds of depression remembering rejection Hope turns to despair black roses everywhereKeep hearing echoes voices in my mind repeating endless lies evil in disguise

The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.

All humans at some time experience injustice, assault, disqualification, invasion and betrayal. No person is completely shielded. We need not trace our family trees very far back or study for long what life was like...

Other flowers came at the end of the summer, but by then the winter sadness had already dissipated, and the effect of the blooms was not the same.

I don’t think it makes much difference what we’re recovering from, all suffering eventually points to the need for healing.

When I deny the seriousness of my abuse I agree with my abuser and those who wouldn’t acknowledge it. When I am in denial, I have the tendency to minimize my abuse, believe the lies...

A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.

Sometimes you have to cross the boundaries of Death in order to discover the meaning of Life.

A lot of people who find out about the things I do immediately figure I’m just a pathetic “druggie” with nothing to say that is worth hearing. They talk endless bull shit of “recovery!” They...

I don’t need anyone else to distract me from myself anymore, like I always thought I would.

Twirling round ‘n round -faster and faster …she dreams this circular motionwill take her home, high in the heavens where hurt is onlyan earthly world.

People pay a dear price when not dealing with the powerful emotions.

She needed to recover. His father had died in January; it was only the end of May. They needed to stick to the routine they’d established during the intervening months. in that way, their life...

Despair was strength. Despair was the scab and the scar. The walled city in a time of plague. A closed fortification. A sure thing, because it was always safer, less painful to stop trying than...

With Ed, I always pushed away the good and only heard the bad. Today, I let in the good.

I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy…

He answered the phone to his daughter with a broken but joyous heart, ready to speak with her of astonishment and wonder.

An engaging examination of a painful subject, with a focus on healing and forgiveness. – Kirkus Review

Don’t ever feel bad that someone couldn’t give you all of their heart. Be grateful that you can take the least complicated part of their soul with you, wherever you go. This is more than...

Karl Marx: “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”Carrie Fisher: “I did masses of opiates religiously.

Is a few hours of hell-raising, or respite from life’s toil worth this every morning?

But undying memories stood like sentinels in her breast. When the notes of doves, calling to each other, fell on her ear, her eyes sought the sky, and she heard a voice saying, “Majella!

No one escapes some degree of chaos for it is so ever prevalent; it is the human experience. This realization does not mean we can’t improve. It does mean we can accept our state of...

Shame is a powerful feeling. There is a tremendous difference between making a mistake and believing you are a mistake…If I don’t see myself as being a mistake then it is I who must take...

So ask me if I am alright.’I’m fine; I’m always fine.’You see this look in my eyes.’No, I’m fine. I am always fine.’There is a corpse behind my smile.’Listen, I am fine. Always, always fine...

Gratitude isn’t a tool to manipulate the universe or God. It’s a way to acknowledge our faith that everything happens for a reason even if we don’t know what that reason is. ~Melody Beattie, 52...

Clinicians have told me that our emotional is arrested at the age that an eating disorder takes control of our lives. After we recover, we pick up emotionally where we left off at that age.

Our wounds are not a measure of one individual’s sad fate, but an indication of our unity with others.

Amy [Winehouse] increasingly became defined by her addiction. Our media though is more interested in tragedy than talent, so the ink began to defect from praising her gift to chronicling her downfall. The destructive personal...

As much as we strive towards the light, we still want to be embraced by the shadow.