Shame is such a strong and powerful emotion. It’s the emotion that can drive addiction and at the same time, the one that can stop you from getting help. That was certainly the case for me. The world has come a long way in its attitude towards addiction. The line “hello, my name is X and I am an alcoholic” has almost become a cultural cliche. Whether thats helpful or not is something I will explore another time - but it shows how some addictions have become more socially acceptable to talk about. Yet others remain shrouded in silence. Take sex addiction for example. Sex is a part of every human story, literally none of us would be here without it. It’s often described as one of the most beautiful expressions of love between two people. But still… we don't talk about it. Many of us would happily discuss our relationship with the toilet before we’d ever admit to struggles around sex. When you stop and think about it, that’s absurd. As long as there are topics we can’t talk about, the...
In today's post I wanted to get a bit ‘sciency’. It is all well and good me sharing my opinions and stories about recovery, but I know some people will need more than ‘it worked for me’ stories. The fact of the matter is that there is a lot that happens through a recovery journey that stands outside of scientific proof. It just happens because it does. If you track recovery back nearly 100 years to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, they would likely tell you that it all just happens because it does. But in these last 100 years Science has caught up with many of the ideas that were initially peddled as ‘beliefs’ and where that happens clearly I find it helpful to highlight the science and I try my best to understand it. One of the things that I have loved about my recovery journey is that it has rekindled my love for reading. Now I find myself reading any book that is even loosely connected to recovery and self improvement. Where once upon a time I would just read, now I study:...