If you’ve ever turned to alcohol with hopes of becoming more outgoing and social, you’re not alone. Many who struggle with alcohol abuse started drinking in the first place due to feeling shy, awkward, or anxious in social settings. But what many don’t realize is that quitting drinking can actually improve your social life, and

Adult Children of Alcoholics’ first promise states that “We will discover our real identities [our True Self] by loving and accepting ourselves.” Many of the other promises contain qualities that our True Self will attain, such as being playful and fun or learning how to be both vulnerable and intimate. These and other program promises

With the final days of the winter of 2025 approaching and extreme boredom setting in, the Pink Elephant Group decided it was time for something new. Already in the books were several Bowl-a-thons, Karaoke Nights, and finally, the fly-by-night Velcro Twister Games, which led to random thirteenth steps and oodles of resentments.  We dropped them

If you are in early recovery, you may be struggling to find your way as a sober person. You may be wondering what your life will be like without drugs and alcohol. You may feel some apprehension and awkwardness. While early recovery is not without its share of obstacles, you will begin to realize how

Many of our human brains excel at separating, dissecting, labeling, categorizing, and organizing concepts to make them more understandable yet terribly complicated. In her genius, this author has taken incredibly complex, timeless wisdom and historically successful methodologies for healing and made them simple(not easy), comprehensible, and accessible. Over the years, I have wrestled, like many

I was working in a new situation and was asked to sort out and manage a large backlog of paperwork. It was a stack at least two feet high; a mountain of dusty paper reflecting all kinds of transactions and data in jargon I could only guess at. Although the task wasn’t as challenging as

Wisdom is commonly defined as having experience, knowledge, and sound judgment. Based on that dictionary definition, it’s attained slowly across time, by living and learning, and not instantly from a jagged bolt of lightning from above, like in children’s cartoons. It’s certainly not the same thing as cognition or intelligence. And it’s hard to quantify

So simple. So hard. Not a lot to do and so easy to forget. The adrenaline intoxication wipes out the plan to keep it simple, maintain my boundaries, avoid that behavior, stop acting that way. I become wrapped up in the sensations of overwhelm and forget to pause. Really, I mean to use the pause,

I have been sober for nearly 4 years, by god’s grace, before that however I was a chronic relapser. I lived the cycle between treatment, halfway and homelessness for years. I wanted so bad to get sober but that’s the thing about recovery, wanting it is not enough, if it were that easy everyone would

Stress and anxiety can be a trigger for relapse, which is why aiming to achieve a mindful, relaxed state is so important during recovery. In one study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, it was found that a 15-minute aromatherapy massage significantly reduced anxiety in study participants, who chose from different essential oils, including lavender,