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

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...

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.

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.

I think I just said it, but I think it’s worth repeating. They gave me hope that there is good in the world out there. There really is. It really does exist. Regardless of how...

A fine glass vase goes from treasure to trash, the moment it is broken. Fortunately, something else happens to you and me. Pick up your pieces. Then, help me gather mine.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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…