When we feel like giving up, like we are beyond help, we must remember that we are never beyond hope. Holding on to hope has always motivated me to keep trying. I have found this...

Vulnerability scares most of us because we’ve been taught that FEELING our feelings is a sign of “over-sensitivity and weakness”. We’ve taught ourselves to “numb” our feelings because they are too painful.We arrive at vulnerability...

Never congratulate a doctor for the fast recovery of a patient.

Maybe you’ve gotten through something and when you did you thought, I am leaving that behind and will never return. And that’s a great way of thinking…for selfish jerks.If we actually care about people other...

I believe in recovery, and as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it.

The shame, embarrassment, feeling of low self-worth, and scores of “labels” we give ourselves are not fitting. I am beginning to see how I had no control over the situation. He was a big man,...

Some flowers need flames to find their way into this world.

Others hide from being real by filling the air with words; the more words they throw out, the less actual communication happens and they are left with only an illusion of connection. This is the...

This woman’s size protected herfrom the hurts of the worldbut it also imprisoned her soul. As the merry-go-round revolved, she ate another French fry,as a silent scream frozen on her face.

We judge ourselves by our intentions; the world judges us by our actions

The healing process is best described as a spiral. Survivors go through the stages once, sometimes many times; sometimes in one order, sometimes in another. Each time they hit a stage again, they move up...

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time.

We don’t necessarily need to know each other’s name, age, profession, drug of choice, childhood trauma or recent tragedy to understand what pain feels like and offer comfort. We are strangers drawn together by a...

If you’re Strigoi,” the boy interrupted loudly, “then why don’t you have horns? My friend Jeffrey said Strigoi have horns.”Dimitri’s eyes fell not on the boy but on me for a moment. Again, that spark...

Every morning, whether I’ve slept or not, whether I’ve made it through the day without crying or given in and sobbed in the shower, where no one can hear me― the sun comes up, and...

The dancing vortex of a sacred metaphor clashes horns and halos to make wounded music set to the tempo of a new era in brilliant labor.

I’m broken, but I have to learn how to live. I feel stuck together with scotch tape, like after any breath everything could come apart. If it does, if it all comes undone, I think...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...