recovery

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
789efdc	Another page turns on the calendar, April now, not March. ......... I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world...I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest. I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness...Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help. I spin and weave and knit my words and visions until a life starts to take shape. There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore. I am thawing.	eating-disorders recovery	Laurie Halse Anderson
f30db8f	Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.	healing injury inspirational recovery scar scars	China Miéville
0123c39	I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy...	recovery	Laurie Halse Anderson
6d7db0e	When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker ... but as survivors. Survivors who don't get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.	depression fear mental-health mental-health-stigma mental-illness recovery recovery-quotes shame stigma stigmatized survivors	Jenny Lawson
3fd315b	The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.	chronic-illness cure cures healing illness inspirational recovery	Joseph Conrad
efa31d2	"I get so god damn lonely and sad and filled with regrets some days. It overwhelms me as I'm sitting on the bus; watching the golden leaves from a window; a sudden burst of realisation in the middle of the night. I can't help it and I can't stop it. I'm alone as I've always been and sometimes it hurts.... but I'm learning to breathe deep through it and keep walking. I'm learning to make things nice for myself. To comfort my own heart when I wake up sad. To find small bits of friendship in a crowd full of strangers. To find a small moment of joy in a blue sky, in a trip somewhere not so far away, a long walk an early morning in December, or a handwritten letter to an old friend simply saying "I thought of you. I hope you're well." No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day. Build yourself a home. Take care of your body. Find something to work on. Something that makes you excited, something you want to learn. Get yourself some books and learn them by heart. Get to know the author, where he grew up, what books he read himself. Take yourself out for dinner. Dress up for no one but you and simply feel nice. it's a lovely feeling, to feel pretty. You don't need anyone to confirm it.	anxiety-disorder being-happy books breath breathing bus december deep depression emotions feelings friendship gratitude growing-up happy heal healing heart joy learn learning letters life-quotes lonely lovely mental-health mental-wellness mindfulness minimalism moment night panic panic-attacks plan prose recovery regret sad sadness self-care sky trying well worries worrying	Charlotte Eriksson
056f730	In the east," she says after a time, her gaze still downcast, "there is a tradition known a	healing inspirational recovery recovery-from-abuse	Mackenzi Lee
5f0fae3	I'm learning how to taste everything.	recovery	Laurie Halse Anderson
f4f6296	Whether I or anyone else accepted the concept of alcoholism as a disease didn't matter; what mattered was that when treated as a disease, those who suffered from it were most likely to recover.	disease pathology recovery rehab	Craig Ferguson
2e4fb13	One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn't a clue. A day is a fuckin' eternity	alcoholism recovery	Roddy Doyle
e676247	...at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.	recovery self-forgiveness	Elizabeth Gilbert
d8f9714	What hell condemned, let heaven now heal.	faith healing heaven hell hope inspiration inspirational-quotes positive-motivation recovery spirituality	Aberjhani
a12f7ea	Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart.	healing love love-heals mystical-passion passion passionate-love rebirth recovery romance survival twin-flames	Aberjhani
15e1ad1	This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been, snatched and fixed on canvas: one moment made to stand still and to stand for all the other moments, whatever they would be or might have been. What life can recover from that?	life loss recovery sad stolen	Susanna Kaysen
e484d22	This rose of pearl-coated infinity transforms the diseased slums of a broken heart into a palace made of psalms and gold.	classic-poems classic-quotes compassion faith grief healing-grief hope infinity inspiration inspiration-for-the-soul inspirational-quotes newtown-connecticut palaces pearls pearls-of-wisdom quotes-for-easter rebirth recovery recovery-from-grief resurrection roses savannah-authors-and-poets sorrow spiritual-transformation spirituality survival transformation	Aberjhani
80b272d	Gately can't even imagine what it would be like to be a sober and drug-free biker. It's like what would be the point. He imagines these people polishing the hell out of their leather and like playing a lot of really precise pool.	alcoholics-anonymous bikers drugs recovery sobriety	David Foster Wallace
d471501	Waiting to be 'better' is the wrong approach. It's learning to live with it.	hope inspirational recovery	Marian Keyes
46fc12f	I found the prospect daunting, but somehow comforting, too, because the counselors insisted it could be done, and, after all, many of them were recovering alcoholics themselves.	comfort recovery rehab	Craig Ferguson
5ab42bf	"Yesterday it was sun outside. The sky was blue and people were lying under blooming cherry trees in the park. It was Friday, so records were released, that people have been working on for years. Friends around me find success and level up, do fancy photo shoots and get featured on big, white, movie screens. There were parties and lovers, hand in hand, laughing perfectly loud, but I walked numbly through the park, round and round, 40 times for 4 hours just wanting to make it through the day. There's a weight that inhabits my chest some times. Like a lock in my throat, making it hard to breathe. A little less air got through and the sky was so blue I couldn't look at it because it made me sad, swelling tears in my eyes and they dripped quietly on the floor as I got on with my day. I tried to keep my focus, ticked off the to-do list, did my chores. Packed orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote stories, but the panic kept growing, exploding in my chest. Tears falling on the desk tick tick tick me not making a sound and some days I just don't know what to do. Where to go or who to see and I try to be gentle, soft and kind, but anxiety eats you up and I just want to be fine. This is not beautiful. This is not useful. You can not do anything with it and it tries to control you, throw you off your balance and lovely ways but you can not let it. I cleaned up. Took myself for a walk. Tried to keep my eyes on the sky. Stayed away from the alcohol, stayed away from the destructive tools we learn to use. the smoking and the starving, the running, the madness, thinking it will help but it only feeds the fire and I don't want to hurt myself anymore. I made it through and today I woke up, lighter and proud because I'm still here. There are flowers growing outside my window. The coffee is warm, the air is pure. In a few hours I'll be on a train on my way to sing for people who invited me to come, to sing, for them. My own songs, that I created. Me--little me. From nowhere at all. And I have people around that I like and can laugh with, and it's spring again.	alcohol anxiety art balance be-okay chest coffee crying drinking ed fine flowers focus grateful gratitude happiness hope hopeful hopeless hurt inspiration joy lovely lovers madness mental-health music new-day okay panic panic-attack panic-attacks park recovery sad sadness self-destruction self-harm sing singing sky smoking songs sound spring starving tears walking well-being wellness	Charlotte Eriksson
0564fdf	The world has long ceased to be the author of your anguish.	blame recovery responsibility suffering	R. Scott Bakker
ad497ac	At the lip of a cliff, I look out over Lake Superior, through the bare branches of birches and the snow-covered branches of aspens and pines. A hard wind blows snow up out of a cavern and over my face. I know this place, I know its seasons - I have hiked these mountains in the summer and walked these winding pathways in the explosion of colour that is a northern fall. And now, the temperature drops well below zero and the deadly cold lake rages below, I feel the stirrings of faith that here, in this place, in my heart, spring will come again. But first the winter must be waited out. And that waiting has worth.	alcoholic anorexia bulimia eating-disorder mental-illness recovery spirituality	Marya Hornbacher
0403f32	"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 of knowing shot between us. Then, face smooth and serious, Dimitri turned to the boy and answered, "Strigoi don't have horns. And even if they did, it wouldn't matter because I'm not a Strigoi."	little-boys recovery	Richelle Mead
10196dc	It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing.	nursing recovery strength	Joseph Conrad
9d1e581	Like Sylvia Plath, Natalie Jeanne Champagne invites you so close to the pain and agony of her life of mental illness and addiction, which leaves you gasping from shock and laughing moments later: this is both the beauty and unique nature of her storytelling. With brilliance and courage, the author's brave and candid chronicle travels where no other memoir about mental illness and addiction has gone before. The Third Sunrise is an incredible triumph and Natalie Jeanne Champagne is without a doubt the most important new voice in this genre.	bipolar-disorder blog blogger depression insomnia interview memoir mental-health recovery writing	Andy Behrman
0223ad6	So ask me if I am alright. 'I'm fine; I'm always fine.' You see this look in my eyes. 'No, I'm fine. I am always fine.' There is a corpse behind my smile. 'Listen, I am fine. Always, always fine as fine can be.' 'Are you okay?' 'I am more than okay. I am more than fine. I am wonderful!	depression friends medicine mental-illness recovery suicidal-thoughts	Emma Rose Kraus
39cd75d	Bear in mind you have a life to live. There is an incredible loss. There is a profound grief. And there is, in the end, after a long time and more work than you ever thought possible, a time when it gets easier.	recovery	Marya Hornbacher
16c5b99	There are a lot of times the heart burrows deeper, goes tunnelling into itself for reasons only the heart itself seems to know.They are times of isolation, of hibernation, sometimes of desolation. There is a bareness that spreads out over the interior landscape of the self, a bareness like tundra, with no sign of life in any direction, no sign of anything beneath the frozen crust of ground, no sign that spring ever intends to come again.	eating-disorder god recovery religion spirituality	Marya Hornbacher
260df3d	For several days, I slept. Whether this was a necessary part of physical recovery, or a stubborn retreat from waking reality, I do not know, but I woke only reluctantly to take a little food, falling at once back into a stupor of oblivion, as though the small, warm weight of broth in my stomach were an anchor that pulled me after it, down through the murky fathoms of sleep.	reality recovery sleep	Diana Gabaldon
6ef6822	"Like most people who decide to get sober, I was brought to Alcoholics Anonymous. While AA certainly works for others, its core propositions felt irreconcilable with my own experiences. I couldn't, for example, rectify the assertion that "alcoholism is a disease" with the facts of my own life. The idea that by simply attending an AA meeting, without any consultation, one is expected to take on a blanket diagnosis of "diseased addict" was to me, at best, patronizing. At worst, irresponsible. Irresponsible because it doesn't encourage people to turn toward and heal the actual underlying causes of their abuse of substances. I drank for thirteen years for REALLY good reasons. Among them were unprocessed grief, parental abandonment, isolation, violent trauma, anxiety and panic, social oppression, a general lack of safety, deep existential discord, and a tremendous diet and lifestyle imbalance. None of which constitute a disease, and all of which manifest as profound internal, mental, emotional and physical discomfort, which I sought to escape by taking external substances. It is only through one's own efforts to turn toward life on its own terms and to develop a wiser relationship to what's there through mindfulness and compassion that make freedom from addictive patterns possible. My sobriety has been sustained by facing life, processing grief, healing family relationships, accepting radically the fact of social oppression, working with my abandonment conditioning, coming into community, renegotiating trauma, making drastic diet and lifestyle changes, forgiving, and practicing mindfulness, to name just a few. Through these things, I began to relieve the very real pressure that compulsive behaviors are an attempt to resolve."	addiction addiction-and-recovery alcoholics-anonymous alcoholism buddhism na narcotics-anonymous oppression recovery secularism sobriety substance-abuse trauma xa	Noah Levine
17db5f1	"Always know there are friends somewhere rooting for you. There are people you don't know, always praying for you and lifting you before God. - Jenee, from "To the Survivors"."	empowerment god healing hope rape recovery sexual-assault sexual-violence shame spirituality suxual-abuse	Robert Uttaro
77b9ae5	I was being cured of soldiering on endlessly: my job was now to be still, which had become almost easy at last.	convalescence healing recovery slowness stillness	Rebecca Solnit
38a67a4	Connect with supportive people who empower you. The more you jump into your life, the further away from Ed you can get. Don't have a backup plan for living. Live today. [...] Trust in God. Believe in yourself. Get friends and family members to stand behind you. That's the only backup you'll need.	eating-disorder ed hope inspiration recovery	Jenni Schaefer
50e2bd4	My only choice was to fight my way out, even if I didn't think I would make it.	depression-recovery eating-disorder-recovery fight life recovery	Laurie Halse Anderson
602073e	If I know something, I am not a victim. Victims don't know the meaning of their suffering. I am an enemy or a collaborator, not a victim.	recovery victimhood	Rachel Klein
1aebbdd	There's a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.	forgiveness injury recover recovery	Alan Paton
0af71c9	What they don't tell you when you get sober is that if you manage to stay that way, you will bury your friends. Not everyone gets to have a whole new shiny-but-messy life like I have, and I've never come up with a satisfying explanation for why that is.	recovery	Nadia Bolz-Weber
bf3f574	Treatment for dependency at substance abuse treatment centers must change if alcoholism and addiction are to be overcome in our society.	12-steps alcohol-abuse alcohol-addiction alcoholism change chris-prentiss drug-abuse drug-addiction non-12-step-program passages-malibu passages-ventura pax-prentiss philosophy recovery society substance-addiction treatment	Chris Prentiss
74d6349	"Then the long nights, that were also days, in the hospital. And the long blanks, that were also nights. Needles, and angled glass rods to suck water through. Needles, and curious enamel wedges slid under your middle. Needles, and - needles and needles and needles. Like swarms of persistent mosquitoes with unbreakable drills. The way a pincushion feels, if it could feel. Or the target of a porcupine. Or a case of not just momentary but permanently endured static electricity after you scuff across a woolen rug and then put your finger on a light switch. Even food was a needle - a jab into a vein... ("For The Rest Of Her Life")"	needles recovery surgery	Cornell Woolrich
ae23b74	When shame is met with compassion and not received as confirmation of our guilt, we can begin to see how slant a lens it has had us looking through. That awareness lets us step back far enough to see that if we can let it go, we will see ourselves as clean where we once thought we were dirty. We will remember our innocence. We will see how our shame supported a system in which the perpetrators were protected and we bore the brunt of their offense -- first in its actuality, then again in carrying their shame for it. If the method we chose to try to beat out shame was perfectionism, we can relax now, shake the burden off our shoulders, and give ourselves a chance to loosen up and make some errors. Hallelujah! Our freedom will not come from tireless effort and getting it all exactly right.	abuser abusers burdens-of-the-past child-rape child-sexual-abuse false-guilt freedom guilt healing healing-from-abuse healing-insights imperfect incest innocence innocence-lost offense peptrator perfectionism perfectly-imperfect perpetrators recovery recovery-from-abuse sexual-abuse shame survivors	Maureen Brady
f73479f	It's true that I never wanted to grow up. But how important was it really -- to have decided to be human?	recovery	Rachel Klein
e1456ef	"...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 to relapse because that think that when they do, they are on the road to recovery."	addiction-cure addiction-treatment addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse alcoholics-anonymous alcoholism books chris-prentiss drug-abuse passages-malibu reading recovery relapse	Chris Prentiss
db14a86	To give up power to change for the better is inherently distasteful to everyone, and to force people to affirm that they are addicts or alcoholics so they can speak in a meeting is shameful and demoralizing.	addiction-treatment alcohol-abuse alcoholic alcoholism change chris-prentiss healing healing-abuse holistic-treatment life-improvement non-12-step passages-malibu passages-rehab passages-treatment passages-ventura pax-prentiss philosophy recovering-addict recovery rehab self-help therapy	Chris Prentiss
9563645	The bridge out of shame is outrage. Suddenly the obvious becomes stunningly clear--we have been carrying shame for the crime of the offender...In a clear flash we may see ourselves standing in a fierce stance, grounded by our knowledge, ready to throw off any wrongdoer. Our outrage can be a fueling energy, capable of making us as steely as we need to be.	child-rape child-sexual-abuse crime healing healing-from-abuse healing-insights incest outrage rage rape recovery recovery-from-abuse shame	Maureen Brady
e0e1bbd	"Do you have any idea why you might be feeling better?" "No, not really," I said curtly. Better wasn't even the word for how I felt. There wasn't a word for it. It was more that things too small to mention--laughter in the hall at school, a live gecko scurrying in a tank in the science lab--made me feel happy one moment and the next like crying. Sometimes, in the evenings, a damp, gritty wind blew in the windows from Park Avenue, just as the rush hour traffic was thinning and the city was emptying for the night; it was rainy, trees leafing out, spring deepening into summer; and the forlorn cry of horns on the street, the dank smell of the wet pavement had an electricity about it, a sense of crowds and static, lonely secretaries and fat guys with bags of carry-out, everywhere the ungainly sadness of creatures pushing and struggling to live. For weeks, I'd been frozen, sealed-off; now, in the shower, I would turn up the water as hard as it would go and howl, silently. Everything was raw and painful and confusing and wrong and yet it was as if I'd been dragged from freezing water through a break in the ice, into sun and blazing cold."	mourning recovery	Donna Tartt
0633b56	We know that you don't want to be a drunk and you don't want to be hooked on addictive drugs. You do it because you can't cope with your life without some sort of support, even if that support is damaging.	addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse alcohol-rehab chris-prentiss dependency drug-abuse drug-rehab passages-malibu passages-ventura pax-prentiss recovery	Chris Prentiss
e2270bb	Fracture lines etch the surface of the glass box as if a body fell from the sky and landed on it. He doesn't hear the impact, can't smell the blood.	life metaphor poetic poetic-prose reassurance recovery wintergirls	Laurie Halse Anderson
9c72548	But making the ugly hurt part human again is not an exercise for the well-meaning social worker in us. This is the most dangerous work you can do. It is like bomb disposal but you are the bomb. That's the problem--the awful thing is you.	healing life recovery redemption self-help	Jeanette Winterson
6c265a2	"When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, "I am grateful," I actually start to feel a bit more grateful...It's basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions."	recovery	A.J. Jacobs
8888681	"Will you be all right?" she asked me. It was not an empty question; she genuinely listened for my reply. "In time," I told her, and for the first time, I admitted that was true. As disloyal as the thought felt, I knew that as time passed, I would be myself again. And in that moment, I felt for the first time the sensation that Black Rolf had tried to describe to me. The wolfish part of my soul stirred, and, I heard near as clearly as if Nighteyes had truly shared the thought with me."	grief grieving-process loss love recovery	Robin Hobb
81f9dd0	As we move away from the old role in which we were helplessly entrapped as a victim, we make friends with the people who affirm us. Their enthusiasm about us mirrors the positive experience we are having.	affirming empowerment friends friendships healing healing-from-abuse moving-on recovery recovery-from-abuse survivor survivors thriver victim victim-role	Maureen Brady

789efdc

Another page turns on the calendar, April now, not March. ......... I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world...I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest. I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness...Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help. I spin and weave and knit my words and visions until a life starts to take shape. There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore. I am thawing.

eating-disorders recovery

Laurie Halse Anderson

f30db8f

Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.

healing injury inspirational recovery scar scars

China Miéville

0123c39

I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy...

recovery

Laurie Halse Anderson

6d7db0e

When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker ... but as survivors. Survivors who don't get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.

depression fear mental-health mental-health-stigma mental-illness recovery recovery-quotes shame stigma stigmatized survivors

Jenny  Lawson

3fd315b

The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.

chronic-illness cure cures healing illness inspirational recovery

Joseph Conrad

efa31d2

"I get so god damn lonely and sad and filled with regrets some days. It overwhelms me as I'm sitting on the bus; watching the golden leaves from a window; a sudden burst of realisation in the middle of the night. I can't help it and I can't stop it. I'm alone as I've always been and sometimes it hurts.... but I'm learning to breathe deep through it and keep walking. I'm learning to make things nice for myself. To comfort my own heart when I wake up sad. To find small bits of friendship in a crowd full of strangers. To find a small moment of joy in a blue sky, in a trip somewhere not so far away, a long walk an early morning in December, or a handwritten letter to an old friend simply saying "I thought of you. I hope you're well." No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day. Build yourself a home. Take care of your body. Find something to work on. Something that makes you excited, something you want to learn. Get yourself some books and learn them by heart. Get to know the author, where he grew up, what books he read himself. Take yourself out for dinner. Dress up for no one but you and simply feel nice. it's a lovely feeling, to feel pretty. You don't need anyone to confirm it.

anxiety-disorder being-happy books breath breathing bus december deep depression emotions feelings friendship gratitude growing-up happy heal healing heart joy learn learning letters life-quotes lonely lovely mental-health mental-wellness mindfulness minimalism moment night panic panic-attacks plan prose recovery regret sad sadness self-care sky trying well worries worrying

Charlotte Eriksson

056f730

In the east," she says after a time, her gaze still downcast, "there is a tradition known a

healing inspirational recovery recovery-from-abuse

Mackenzi Lee

5f0fae3

I'm learning how to taste everything.

recovery

Laurie Halse Anderson

f4f6296

Whether I or anyone else accepted the concept of alcoholism as a disease didn't matter; what mattered was that when treated as a disease, those who suffered from it were most likely to recover.

disease pathology recovery rehab

Craig Ferguson

2e4fb13

One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn't a clue. A day is a fuckin' eternity

alcoholism recovery

Roddy Doyle

e676247

...at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.

recovery self-forgiveness

Elizabeth Gilbert

d8f9714

What hell condemned, let heaven now heal.

faith healing heaven hell hope inspiration inspirational-quotes positive-motivation recovery spirituality

Aberjhani

a12f7ea

Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart.

healing love love-heals mystical-passion passion passionate-love rebirth recovery romance survival twin-flames

Aberjhani

15e1ad1

This time I read the title of the painting: Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been, snatched and fixed on canvas: one moment made to stand still and to stand for all the other moments, whatever they would be or might have been. What life can recover from that?

life loss recovery sad stolen

Susanna Kaysen

e484d22

This rose of pearl-coated infinity transforms the diseased slums of a broken heart into a palace made of psalms and gold.

classic-poems classic-quotes compassion faith grief healing-grief hope infinity inspiration inspiration-for-the-soul inspirational-quotes newtown-connecticut palaces pearls pearls-of-wisdom quotes-for-easter rebirth recovery recovery-from-grief resurrection roses savannah-authors-and-poets sorrow spiritual-transformation spirituality survival transformation

Aberjhani

80b272d

Gately can't even imagine what it would be like to be a sober and drug-free biker. It's like what would be the point. He imagines these people polishing the hell out of their leather and like playing a lot of really precise pool.

alcoholics-anonymous bikers drugs recovery sobriety

David Foster Wallace

d471501

Waiting to be 'better' is the wrong approach. It's learning to live with it.

hope inspirational recovery

Marian Keyes

46fc12f

I found the prospect daunting, but somehow comforting, too, because the counselors insisted it could be done, and, after all, many of them were recovering alcoholics themselves.

comfort recovery rehab

Craig Ferguson

5ab42bf

"Yesterday it was sun outside. The sky was blue and people were lying under blooming cherry trees in the park. It was Friday, so records were released, that people have been working on for years. Friends around me find success and level up, do fancy photo shoots and get featured on big, white, movie screens. There were parties and lovers, hand in hand, laughing perfectly loud, but I walked numbly through the park, round and round, 40 times for 4 hours just wanting to make it through the day. There's a weight that inhabits my chest some times. Like a lock in my throat, making it hard to breathe. A little less air got through and the sky was so blue I couldn't look at it because it made me sad, swelling tears in my eyes and they dripped quietly on the floor as I got on with my day. I tried to keep my focus, ticked off the to-do list, did my chores. Packed orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote stories, but the panic kept growing, exploding in my chest. Tears falling on the desk tick tick tick me not making a sound and some days I just don't know what to do. Where to go or who to see and I try to be gentle, soft and kind, but anxiety eats you up and I just want to be fine. This is not beautiful. This is not useful. You can not do anything with it and it tries to control you, throw you off your balance and lovely ways but you can not let it. I cleaned up. Took myself for a walk. Tried to keep my eyes on the sky. Stayed away from the alcohol, stayed away from the destructive tools we learn to use. the smoking and the starving, the running, the madness, thinking it will help but it only feeds the fire and I don't want to hurt myself anymore. I made it through and today I woke up, lighter and proud because I'm still here. There are flowers growing outside my window. The coffee is warm, the air is pure. In a few hours I'll be on a train on my way to sing for people who invited me to come, to sing, for them. My own songs, that I created. Me--little me. From nowhere at all. And I have people around that I like and can laugh with, and it's spring again.

alcohol anxiety art balance be-okay chest coffee crying drinking ed fine flowers focus grateful gratitude happiness hope hopeful hopeless hurt inspiration joy lovely lovers madness mental-health music new-day okay panic panic-attack panic-attacks park recovery sad sadness self-destruction self-harm sing singing sky smoking songs sound spring starving tears walking well-being wellness

Charlotte Eriksson

0564fdf

The world has long ceased to be the author of your anguish.

blame recovery responsibility suffering

R. Scott Bakker

ad497ac

At the lip of a cliff, I look out over Lake Superior, through the bare branches of birches and the snow-covered branches of aspens and pines. A hard wind blows snow up out of a cavern and over my face. I know this place, I know its seasons - I have hiked these mountains in the summer and walked these winding pathways in the explosion of colour that is a northern fall. And now, the temperature drops well below zero and the deadly cold lake rages below, I feel the stirrings of faith that here, in this place, in my heart, spring will come again. But first the winter must be waited out. And that waiting has worth.

alcoholic anorexia bulimia eating-disorder mental-illness recovery spirituality

Marya Hornbacher

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"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 of knowing shot between us. Then, face smooth and serious, Dimitri turned to the boy and answered, "Strigoi don't have horns. And even if they did, it wouldn't matter because I'm not a Strigoi."

little-boys recovery

Richelle Mead

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It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing.

nursing recovery strength

Joseph Conrad

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Like Sylvia Plath, Natalie Jeanne Champagne invites you so close to the pain and agony of her life of mental illness and addiction, which leaves you gasping from shock and laughing moments later: this is both the beauty and unique nature of her storytelling. With brilliance and courage, the author's brave and candid chronicle travels where no other memoir about mental illness and addiction has gone before. The Third Sunrise is an incredible triumph and Natalie Jeanne Champagne is without a doubt the most important new voice in this genre.

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Andy Behrman

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So ask me if I am alright. 'I'm fine; I'm always fine.' You see this look in my eyes. 'No, I'm fine. I am always fine.' There is a corpse behind my smile. 'Listen, I am fine. Always, always fine as fine can be.' 'Are you okay?' 'I am more than okay. I am more than fine. I am wonderful!

depression friends medicine mental-illness recovery suicidal-thoughts

Emma Rose Kraus

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Bear in mind you have a life to live. There is an incredible loss. There is a profound grief. And there is, in the end, after a long time and more work than you ever thought possible, a time when it gets easier.

recovery

Marya Hornbacher

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There are a lot of times the heart burrows deeper, goes tunnelling into itself for reasons only the heart itself seems to know.They are times of isolation, of hibernation, sometimes of desolation. There is a bareness that spreads out over the interior landscape of the self, a bareness like tundra, with no sign of life in any direction, no sign of anything beneath the frozen crust of ground, no sign that spring ever intends to come again.

eating-disorder god recovery religion spirituality

Marya Hornbacher

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For several days, I slept. Whether this was a necessary part of physical recovery, or a stubborn retreat from waking reality, I do not know, but I woke only reluctantly to take a little food, falling at once back into a stupor of oblivion, as though the small, warm weight of broth in my stomach were an anchor that pulled me after it, down through the murky fathoms of sleep.

reality recovery sleep

Diana Gabaldon

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"Like most people who decide to get sober, I was brought to Alcoholics Anonymous. While AA certainly works for others, its core propositions felt irreconcilable with my own experiences. I couldn't, for example, rectify the assertion that "alcoholism is a disease" with the facts of my own life. The idea that by simply attending an AA meeting, without any consultation, one is expected to take on a blanket diagnosis of "diseased addict" was to me, at best, patronizing. At worst, irresponsible. Irresponsible because it doesn't encourage people to turn toward and heal the actual underlying causes of their abuse of substances. I drank for thirteen years for REALLY good reasons. Among them were unprocessed grief, parental abandonment, isolation, violent trauma, anxiety and panic, social oppression, a general lack of safety, deep existential discord, and a tremendous diet and lifestyle imbalance. None of which constitute a disease, and all of which manifest as profound internal, mental, emotional and physical discomfort, which I sought to escape by taking external substances. It is only through one's own efforts to turn toward life on its own terms and to develop a wiser relationship to what's there through mindfulness and compassion that make freedom from addictive patterns possible. My sobriety has been sustained by facing life, processing grief, healing family relationships, accepting radically the fact of social oppression, working with my abandonment conditioning, coming into community, renegotiating trauma, making drastic diet and lifestyle changes, forgiving, and practicing mindfulness, to name just a few. Through these things, I began to relieve the very real pressure that compulsive behaviors are an attempt to resolve."

addiction addiction-and-recovery alcoholics-anonymous alcoholism buddhism na narcotics-anonymous oppression recovery secularism sobriety substance-abuse trauma xa

Noah Levine

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"Always know there are friends somewhere rooting for you. There are people you don't know, always praying for you and lifting you before God. - Jenee, from "To the Survivors"."

empowerment god healing hope rape recovery sexual-assault sexual-violence shame spirituality suxual-abuse

Robert Uttaro

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I was being cured of soldiering on endlessly: my job was now to be still, which had become almost easy at last.

convalescence healing recovery slowness stillness

Rebecca Solnit

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Connect with supportive people who empower you. The more you jump into your life, the further away from Ed you can get. Don't have a backup plan for living. Live today. [...] Trust in God. Believe in yourself. Get friends and family members to stand behind you. That's the only backup you'll need.

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Jenni Schaefer

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My only choice was to fight my way out, even if I didn't think I would make it.

depression-recovery eating-disorder-recovery fight life recovery

Laurie Halse Anderson

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If I know something, I am not a victim. Victims don't know the meaning of their suffering. I am an enemy or a collaborator, not a victim.

recovery victimhood

Rachel Klein

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There's a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

forgiveness injury recover recovery

Alan Paton

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What they don't tell you when you get sober is that if you manage to stay that way, you will bury your friends. Not everyone gets to have a whole new shiny-but-messy life like I have, and I've never come up with a satisfying explanation for why that is.

recovery

Nadia Bolz-Weber

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Treatment for dependency at substance abuse treatment centers must change if alcoholism and addiction are to be overcome in our society.

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Chris Prentiss

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"Then the long nights, that were also days, in the hospital. And the long blanks, that were also nights. Needles, and angled glass rods to suck water through. Needles, and curious enamel wedges slid under your middle. Needles, and - needles and needles and needles. Like swarms of persistent mosquitoes with unbreakable drills. The way a pincushion feels, if it could feel. Or the target of a porcupine. Or a case of not just momentary but permanently endured static electricity after you scuff across a woolen rug and then put your finger on a light switch. Even food was a needle - a jab into a vein... ("For The Rest Of Her Life")"

needles recovery surgery

Cornell Woolrich

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When shame is met with compassion and not received as confirmation of our guilt, we can begin to see how slant a lens it has had us looking through. That awareness lets us step back far enough to see that if we can let it go, we will see ourselves as clean where we once thought we were dirty. We will remember our innocence. We will see how our shame supported a system in which the perpetrators were protected and we bore the brunt of their offense -- first in its actuality, then again in carrying their shame for it. If the method we chose to try to beat out shame was perfectionism, we can relax now, shake the burden off our shoulders, and give ourselves a chance to loosen up and make some errors. Hallelujah! Our freedom will not come from tireless effort and getting it all exactly right.

abuser abusers burdens-of-the-past child-rape child-sexual-abuse false-guilt freedom guilt healing healing-from-abuse healing-insights imperfect incest innocence innocence-lost offense peptrator perfectionism perfectly-imperfect perpetrators recovery recovery-from-abuse sexual-abuse shame survivors

Maureen Brady

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It's true that I never wanted to grow up. But how important was it really -- to have decided to be human?

recovery

Rachel Klein

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"...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 to relapse because that think that when they do, they are on the road to recovery."

addiction-cure addiction-treatment addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse alcoholics-anonymous alcoholism books chris-prentiss drug-abuse passages-malibu reading recovery relapse

Chris Prentiss

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To give up power to change for the better is inherently distasteful to everyone, and to force people to affirm that they are addicts or alcoholics so they can speak in a meeting is shameful and demoralizing.

addiction-treatment alcohol-abuse alcoholic alcoholism change chris-prentiss healing healing-abuse holistic-treatment life-improvement non-12-step passages-malibu passages-rehab passages-treatment passages-ventura pax-prentiss philosophy recovering-addict recovery rehab self-help therapy

Chris Prentiss

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The bridge out of shame is outrage. Suddenly the obvious becomes stunningly clear--we have been carrying shame for the crime of the offender...In a clear flash we may see ourselves standing in a fierce stance, grounded by our knowledge, ready to throw off any wrongdoer. Our outrage can be a fueling energy, capable of making us as steely as we need to be.

child-rape child-sexual-abuse crime healing healing-from-abuse healing-insights incest outrage rage rape recovery recovery-from-abuse shame

Maureen Brady

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"Do you have any idea why you might be feeling better?" "No, not really," I said curtly. Better wasn't even the word for how I felt. There wasn't a word for it. It was more that things too small to mention--laughter in the hall at school, a live gecko scurrying in a tank in the science lab--made me feel happy one moment and the next like crying. Sometimes, in the evenings, a damp, gritty wind blew in the windows from Park Avenue, just as the rush hour traffic was thinning and the city was emptying for the night; it was rainy, trees leafing out, spring deepening into summer; and the forlorn cry of horns on the street, the dank smell of the wet pavement had an electricity about it, a sense of crowds and static, lonely secretaries and fat guys with bags of carry-out, everywhere the ungainly sadness of creatures pushing and struggling to live. For weeks, I'd been frozen, sealed-off; now, in the shower, I would turn up the water as hard as it would go and howl, silently. Everything was raw and painful and confusing and wrong and yet it was as if I'd been dragged from freezing water through a break in the ice, into sun and blazing cold."

mourning recovery

Donna Tartt

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We know that you don't want to be a drunk and you don't want to be hooked on addictive drugs. You do it because you can't cope with your life without some sort of support, even if that support is damaging.

addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse alcohol-rehab chris-prentiss dependency drug-abuse drug-rehab passages-malibu passages-ventura pax-prentiss recovery

Chris Prentiss

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Fracture lines etch the surface of the glass box as if a body fell from the sky and landed on it. He doesn't hear the impact, can't smell the blood.

life metaphor poetic poetic-prose reassurance recovery wintergirls

Laurie Halse Anderson

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But making the ugly hurt part human again is not an exercise for the well-meaning social worker in us. This is the most dangerous work you can do. It is like bomb disposal but you are the bomb. That's the problem--the awful thing is you.

healing life recovery redemption self-help

Jeanette Winterson

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"When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, "I am grateful," I actually start to feel a bit more grateful...It's basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions."

recovery

A.J. Jacobs

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"Will you be all right?" she asked me. It was not an empty question; she genuinely listened for my reply. "In time," I told her, and for the first time, I admitted that was true. As disloyal as the thought felt, I knew that as time passed, I would be myself again. And in that moment, I felt for the first time the sensation that Black Rolf had tried to describe to me. The wolfish part of my soul stirred, and, I heard near as clearly as if Nighteyes had truly shared the thought with me."

grief grieving-process loss love recovery

Robin Hobb

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As we move away from the old role in which we were helplessly entrapped as a victim, we make friends with the people who affirm us. Their enthusiasm about us mirrors the positive experience we are having.

affirming empowerment friends friendships healing healing-from-abuse moving-on recovery recovery-from-abuse survivor survivors thriver victim victim-role

Maureen Brady