What Winners Do – An Addiction Recovery Blog Stories, Struggles And Success of A Recovering Addict Trying to Do What Winners Do

Overwhelmed? Naaa… Ok Maybe A Little

Overwhelmed? How does one get overwhelmed when they are living life Twenty-four hours at a time? Oh right... I haven't been too good at that lately.

What I have been good at is dreading what I'm going to have to go through in the very near future. This is pretty asinine when you think about it because all of this dread is over what I think my near future is going to be like. I have no idea for sure what these next few weeks or month will bring and yet here I am letting myself dwell on "what ifs".

I guess I gotta get back to basics right? I have spent a lot of time learning to hang in there and I need to start applying what I have learned to my current situation. As in right now, right this moment.

So, no more dreading tomorrow. I need to stay in the day, or the moment really. I need to remember the quote that used to get me by:

“Today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope”.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Keeping Yourself Balanced in Addiction Recovery

I have a hard time keeping myself balanced. What does that even mean right? Well to me it means not going off like gangbusters (I can't believe I just used the term gangbusters... when did I start talking like my grandmother?) in one direction leaving other parts of myself to rust up and die. A little over-dramatic? Maybe.

There was a time when my only goal in recovery was getting through the day without using. Happily, through time and a lot of work, I have built up skills that allow me to get through most days without ever thinking about my drug of choice.

Great. But what about all the other things that I've tried working on throughout my recovery. Why do I go balls out, start seeing results, then get kind of bored and let it fall to the wayside?

I feel like this is still me doing everything to excess, choking the life out of things and then leaving them to die. How can I keep myself balanced in addiction recovery?

Addiction Recovery: How Do You Relieve Stress?

In the old days I would use drugs as a way to "relieve stress". With that not being an option any longer, mostly because it ended up causing more stress, I am now searching for ways to relieve stress without the use of mood altering substances.

Happy Memorial Day… And Thank You

I think that sometimes we lose sight of what this holiday is really about. I just wanted to take a moment to thank all those that have served in our military.

Thank you

Things You Didn’t Do Because You Got High

If you sit and think of all the things that you were going to do but didn't do because you got high/drunk...you would probably make yourself sick. It's safe to say that when we were actively addicted there were plenty of responsibilities that we talked ourselves right out of for one reason...because we got high.

Luckily we don't have to list all of our shirked responsibilities, I found a video from back in the day that will do it for us.

Recovery Solutions Magazine’s Top 22 “Cool” Ways for Teens to Say No

I just read a snipit of Recovery Solutions Magazine's article on the top 22 "cool" ways for teens to say no. While I applaud what they are trying to do...it just doesn't seem to fit.

I know for myself that when I started drinking and taking drugs at an early age, it wasn't because I just didn't know how to say no. It was mainly because even at that young age, I was searching for a way to change how I was feeling. You could have given me a list of 1000 "cool" ways to say no...my answer would always have been yes.