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One of the most harmful myths surrounding alcohol addiction recovery is the idea of relapse and day one. Mainstream recovery modalities and the criminal justice system use fear to ignite abstinence, preaching that perfection is the only acceptable path forward. It is normal and expected to relapse and return to day one after a slip.
My name is Martyn Armstrong (Momo, as I'm more commonly known in online circles); I'm a new blogger for "Debunking Addiction" at HealthyPlace. Next January, I'll cross the threshold of 10 years of sobriety. Still, other than a few Twitter threads on my journey, I'm relatively new to discussing addiction and mental health. And I feel excited (and, if I'm honest, slightly nervous) about sharing my experiences. Addiction and mental health play significant roles in my everyday life. And, though it sounds odd, there are upsides to both.
Which is worse, having really bad arthritis in my knees or hearing voices? I don’t know. They both stink, and I’ve suffered from both. Not that rank needs to be pulled, but maybe I’ll figure out which one is worse--or which one I can cope with better--by writing about hearing voices versus arthritis.
There was a time that I felt I needed to avoid anything that caused anxiety. Whether it was a long-term trigger or something that was making me feel uncomfortable at the moment, I felt that I needed to avoid the situation to keep from experiencing any unpleasant feelings as a result of anxiety. But I have learned that avoidance doesn't help my anxiety.
I am one of the many people who consider their first love a life-changing chapter of their lives. Unfortunately, betrayal marred my first love, and the resulting betrayal trauma made it hard for me to move on.
Today, individualism is more challenging than ever. This week, I've been thinking a lot about The Fountainhead, a novel by Ayn Rand, the Russian-born American writer and thinker who's been largely slimed by 21st-century progressives for her conservative political philosophy. The Fountainhead, however, deals not with politics but with self-hood and being an individual.
During my childhood, my dad was one of my best friends. So Father's Day was a very exciting time. But after my father died, I dreaded the holiday. Over the years, I have learned to cope with grief through writing. This Father's Day, I want to share some writing prompts that have helped me to remember my father's special place in my life. This post contains six of my writing prompts.
Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. While it can help you achieve greater things in your personal and professional life, it can also lead to a never-ending cycle of self-criticism and low self-esteem. Perfectionists tie their self-esteem to their achievements, and if things don't go to plan, they start feeling like they are failures which can destroy their confidence and even self-confidence.
In the 15 or so years that I've lived with depression, I’ve built a metaphorical toolbox of techniques and relationships that help me keep the darkness at bay. Two of these depression coping tools are my dogs. Here’s how bundles of fur and slobber, known as dogs, help me cope with depression.
My eating disorder relies on selective memory in order to maintain a stringent foothold in my life. Selective memories are enticing and compelling. They can also be quite dangerous. In fact, as I have come to realize, the presence of selective memory is often the difference between making continual strides in recovery or free-falling back into a cycle of relapse. What do I mean by this, and how am I learning to combat selective memory in my eating disorder? Let me explain.
No one is perfect so stop trying to be, another one is if you hold anger against your parents, other family members, friends etc for a past issue that happened your need to regardless of what it is, you need to forgive them for it and in saying that you don’t go looking for an apology from them because you might not get it you forgive them within yourself because that’s the result you need.
You need to learn to laugh at yourself with any fault you believe you have because once again at the end of the day they are worthless things to hold over yourself.
Picture yourself as a old person not far from your time in this life/world to live and truly think about this
- have you wasted the one life we get worrying about pointless things that happened and enjoy this experience of life.
Go through you individual anxiety fueled mental battles and forgive yourself or others and forget about that problem forever because they really only are: LIFE LESSONS to remind yourself to not do that again.
And got rid of all those problems, i no longer have what I called my Anxiety Alarm Clock every time my head hit my pillow to go to sleep at night.
I also reminded myself that anxiety and depression owned half my life and I WAS GOING TO OWN THE NEXT HALF.
If you start to feel a panic attack coming and this took time to get it to work, slow your breathing right down and same amount of time breathing in then out keeping the same pace, if you drift off back into worthless thoughts go back to breathing slowly in and out, it about changing your triggers.
And the day he snapped his fingers to get my. attention was the day I k ew I had to end it.