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

Mother’s Day

I truly can't believe it but it's already time for Mother's Day again. The year has gone by so quickly but it has also brought so many changes.

Last year my Happy Mother's Day post was about my own mother and the importance of a mother's support and understanding for her child in their recovery.

This year I wanted to talk about how much my own role of a mother has improved now that I am further into my addiction recovery.

Are You Still Keeping Secrets In Your Recovery?

"They Say" that a huge part of addiction recovery is un-burdening yourself of all those "secrets" that you keep inside because of the fear of judgment. I guess this goes along with Step 5 of the 12 Steps. You admit to your higher power, yourself, and another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.

The purpose of this step is supposed to be about openly acknowledging the positive while committing to work at rectifying your negatives. I do understand the purpose of it, I guess I'm just NO WHERE near being ready for this type of outward honesty. I'm not saying I'll never be there, just not right now.

It seems that I'm not alone in my unwillingness to admit my secrets to another human beings. I have found some sites recently who's main purpose is to let people anonymously admit their secrets...both good and bad.

Diabetes And Addiction Are A Lot Alike

I'm going to catch some shit about this article...I can already tell. There are going to be people who are suffering from Diabetes reading this, thinking that I am insulting them by comparing addiction to diabetes. But hear me out.

Putting It All Out There

Lately I've been trying to find some ways of publicizing my site. I'm finding it's not that easy with a site that focuses on addiction recovery. But I was able to find a pretty cool site that let's you do your own blog reviews

Addiction Recovery: Ebbs And Flows

When I am having a hard time with my addiction recovery for some reason I start to think that it is always hard, that I'm always struggling. Then I take a look at some of my previous posts and I realize...no I have had just as many easy and harmonious times as I have difficult times.

Breaking Down Bad Beliefs In Addiction Recovery

The beliefs that I'm talking about breaking down in addiction recovery have to do with what you believe to be true about yourself. This occurred to me while being on an airplane recently. There was a time that I believed that I was terrified of flying and that I needed to take a tranquilizer (or many tranquilizers) to get myself through this horrific ordeal. If I wasn't completely "relaxed" during my flight there is no telling what could happen...or so I believed.

Recently I experienced flying for the first time without the help of tranquilizers. You want to know what - I'm not afraid of flying. Sure I get a little nervous as I assume most people do at times, but I am able to calm myself down without the use of a mood altering substance. So why is it that I believed I was afraid of flying?

HALT Hungry Angry Lonely Tired Even After All This Time

Those of us in recovery have gotten used to the acronym H.A.L.T which translates to hungry, angry, lonely, tired. But have we gotten too used to it?

By paying attention to these four areas of our being we are making sure that are very basic needs are being met. When we make sure that our basic needs are being met, we are less likely to turn to drugs or alcohol to solve any unmet basic needs.

But, things happen. Sleepless nights, skipped meals, solitude, and even the occasional angry outburst. It is really important to make sure that you realize that any of these basic needs left unmet can leave you searching for ways to artificially change the way you are feeling.