A Recipe for Anxiety (Hint – It Includes Dark Chocolate…)
Many of us in recovery suffer with anxiety. It comes as part of the package of feelings we experience. It also waxes and wanes as we experience different moments and milestones in our recovery. Today, I am in the waxing phase. I’ll share with you how I am coping and my top tips to […]
Fighting Fit – A Recipe for a Healthy Winter…
Winter is on its way. The temperature has dropped; it is getting darker earlier and there is less sunshine. I’m not sure about you, but when I feel winter looming I want to hibernate. A place that is all too familiar. As a person in recovery, I have a propensity to withdraw. I want […]
My First AA Meeting… Scared to Death
The sounds of laughter trickled down the hall and up the stairs, carried on the currents of coffee and lingering stale cigarette smoke. I stood at the top railing, peering down. There was no one was in sight, but I could hear them. I looked back behind me, through the double doors of the […]
Who Do You Trust? The Passion and Power of the Mental Health Profession
On Monday, I was at a dinner with a cool dozen mental health professionals. I am still reeling from the wealth of talent, housed in our private dining room. The dinner was sponsored by our friends at Alta Mira Recovery Programs and Bridges to Recovery and their Clinical Outreach Representative Carla Chludzinski. Egos and diets were […]
Fear Not the Pink Cloud, My Sober Friends
You can see it up there, can’t you? Right beside the sun, next to the unicorn. It’s hard to miss—a fluffy mass resplendent in its coral color. It has a built-in espresso maker and from its center, rainbows shoot high in the sky and stain the horizon with joy and high-fives. If you’ve […]
Excursions – Embracing the Challenges and the Triumphs of Recovery
I am one of those people who likes to experience the thing I am touting. No false advertising here. So when Sanford House set out to launch an online, lifestyle magazine for people in recovery, I did some soul searching – head and foot. We organized several meetings, where Sanford House staff unearthed what recovery […]
Girl Restarted – What It’s Like to be Out of Rehab and Back to College
Apartness is such a common thread in the stories of alcoholics and addicts. It seems to plague us; the feeling of being an utter misfit, of not belonging and having to pump ourselves full of booze just to feel a part of things. I don’t ever remember feeling comfortable anywhere. I was squirmy and […]
How Do I Know My Therapy is Working?
I come from two separate worlds. I am an artist, first and foremost. Art helps me frame my experiences and communicate my ideas. Art makes me feel happy, comfortable, and excited. I’m also a mental health professional. Mental health professionals do not use art to frame their experiences. They use facts to communicate their […]
Doodling to Distract – The “Art” of Visual Journaling
In my blog post last week, I discussed the benefits of creating art in an art therapy context. This week, I want to talk a little bit about the benefits of creating art on your own. I started keeping a visual journal in college. It was assigned to me by my favorite professor, and […]
Getting Self-Esteem (I’m Not Much, But I’m All I Think About)
Mirrors I used to love looking in mirrors. As a child, I’d frown, make funny faces and would see just how far I could cross my eyes. I inspected myself—the gap in my two front chompers, the length of my hair, the way my eyebrows almost met. As I grew up, I found […]