Topic: emotional issues

It’s sometimes said that the justified ones are by far the most dangerous. They’re the most difficult to let go of, and the most likely to develop into an obsession.

That’s the mystery: Not why some people become addicted to certain substances, but why others do not.

Having an escape plan or a back-up excuse should you need to leave a stressful situation quickly can also be very helpful.

In recovery, shame can be a motivator for change.

When you give in to panic, you find yourself with two problems rather than one: The thing that’s scaring you, and the fact that you’re panicky and can’t reason clearly.

But no matter how difficult a challenge or how great a triumph it is for us to get from there to here, life’s still going to keep throwing more problems at us.

He can recite the Steps and thump the Big Book with the best of them, but somehow missed out on one of the truly important lessons of most people’s recovery — the need for a degree of personal serenity.

Not so much ‘I share your pain’ as ‘I want to show you I understand what you mean.’

The better we understand the origins of a depressed mood, the more likely we are to come up with an effective remedy.

Psychiatrists were encouraged to hold off on a diagnosis of depressive disorder until several months after such a loss.