Please Don’t Tell me to Detach!
If you are the bystander watching this brutal disease from the front row, what do you do? Detach from someone you love as they are spiraling? What doe…
Reaching Level 10 Stress…and Stepping Away
The long-term stress I experienced caused me to become very forgetful, hasty in my decisions, confused and socially awkward. I also noticed that durin…
Is Your Hope at the Mercy of Others?
Through recovery work, I have learned to stop expecting people to be different and to reduce the frustration that comes from trying to cause a person …
You Oughta Be Ashamed of Yourself!
Positive reinforcement, as basic and childlike as that sounds, is a motivating force for progress. Speaking to someone’s goodness despite their wron…
What I Did to Get Better (part 2): Small steps and boundaries
My healing did not come easily and did not come overnight. It has been an extremely difficult journey and I am still not great at it. It took really s…
You Are a Reward
You might be grumbling. You might be accusing, guilting or complaining. Or trying desperately to prevent them from going out. You might be brooding in…
They’re So Enmeshed – Can I Possibly Help?
“Enmeshed” is a good word to describe the situation between your sister and her son. Enmeshed describes a pattern, years in the making, when a fam…
What I Did to Get Better
If I'm out at a party at a friend's house, staying present in the party, in the moment, and enjoying every single moment with them, because that's whe…
He’s Been Smoking Pot Half His Young Life
If I had to characterize pot users in one sentence I would describe them as observers of their own life. This passivity cripples ambition and motivati…
My Mom is an Expert at Arguing (part 2)
Vitriol can be described as a solution-less rant of hate-filled criticism. A brand of sulfuric acid was named Vitriol, reason being that the acid was …