by Chris | Jul 3, 2024 | General
When I first came to recovery, I was in a lot of pain, and I was doing everything I could to avoid feeling more. In my first foray through the Twelve Steps, my sponsor helped open my eyes to how all of my attempts to avoid pain weren’t actually getting me out of it...
by Chris | Jun 19, 2024 | Alcohol & Drug Addiction, Codependence, Family, Loved One of an Addict
“Lord, please don’t let me lose my love for my husband,” I would pray. After years of living with a man with active alcoholism, I felt anything but loving. In fact, I was often in despair, full of fear, grief, and resentment, and on my knees with this prayer on my...
by Chris | Jun 12, 2024 | Family, Loved One of an Addict, Pornography & Sexual Addiction, Sex/Pornography
It was an argument over a grocery order. My husband and I were in the early days of my discovering his lust-driven secret life. Because he did not choose to disclose to me all of his deception at once—a concept called “trickle truth”—it seemed that every time I turned...
by Chris | Jun 6, 2024 | Codependence, Expert Opinion, Getting Sober, Help from the Saints, Saints—On Earth & in Heaven, Spiritual Tools
Rule 1 of St. Ignatius’ “rules of discernment” stands alone in many ways, describing the experience of one who is moving in the wrong direction, away from God, and towards vice and sin. In a modern sense, this first rule also describes those of us who are diving into...
by Chris | May 29, 2024 | Compulsive Eating Behaviors
The first time I let a craving pass without giving in to it, I shook all over. In spite of wanting food with a desperation I’d never before let myself experience, nausea surged up in my throat. I cried. I felt like a twitchy rodent caught in a trap, and all I wanted...