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...
Three words. On the face of it, it's so simple! Yet there is so much meaning in these three words. There are so many layers that they are worthy of a blog post. There is a part of me that can laugh at the irony that this isn't the first blog post. But for me it was completely logical. First Things First represents the first actions. The first steps towards ANOTHER WAY. But before I could take these actions I had to make the decision that I wanted to get off of the path that I was on. Which means that before I could take my first action, I had to make my first decision, which was ONE DAY… or… DAY ONE (see previous post). And truth be told my first actions in sobriety were unclear, unintentional and unimpactful. Which now, reflecting back on it, leaves me with no surprise that my first stint of sobriety (28 days) was a complete roller coaster. I was not happy. I was not content. I was not satisfied. In the world of alcoholism they would call that being a ‘dry drunk’. Every waking...