OF HUMAN BONDAGE Yoga Bhajan articulated Nirvana for this recovering Alcoholic and addict who has Bipolar Disorder (and is still recovering from serious insecure attachment issues) when he stated: "If you are willing to look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a … Continue reading OF HUMAN BONDAGE →

If living with your mental illness, and sometimes barely surviving it, has you so exhausted that silence becomes your language, I am fluent. "Converse" with me.

HERE IS MY THANKS TO THE MONSTERS Absurd as it sounds, I "throw roses into the abyss" and say thanks to "the monsters who didn't succeed in swallowing me alive" every day. How could I not? Grappling with those monsters shaped me into the person I am today: informing my spiritual worldview, forging my character, … Continue reading HERE IS MY THANKS TO THE MONSTERS →

PURGING THE POISONS FROM YOUR HEART Harsh, painful experience has taught me that forgiveness is essential to my spiritual and mental well-being. As the AA Big Book so aptly states, "Resentment is the number one offender." Holding onto a grudge against someone else is spiritually corrosive. It's like waking up every morning and dousing my … Continue reading PURGING THE POISONS FROM YOUR HEART →

It's OK to have a mental illness and addiction. I have Bipolar Disorder, Alcoholism, and an Addiction. It just means that I have triple the amount of experience, strength, and hope to share; a trifecta of fellow sufferers to help, and from whom I can receive help; and three times the motivation to work my … Continue reading HITTING THE TRIFECTA →

The Barbarism of Bedlam "San Luis Obispo County, CA — Terrifying video of an in-custody death has recently been released confirming police officers tortured a man for days in a restraint chair and then laughed as he spent his final moments alive suffering in agony in his jail cell." I didn't post the video because … Continue reading The Barbarism of Bedlam →

DETACHING WITH LOVE If you don't understand that I have a mental illness, and respect that aspect of me, then we can't be friends. Or family. My spiritual belief is to practice love and tolerance, though I sometimes fall woefully short. Nevertheless, I keep striving. But a corollary to that tenet is to detach with … Continue reading DETACHING WITH LOVE →

LOVE US ADDICTS Addiction is indeed a special kind of Hell. Like a wicked, tentacled demon, it reaches down your throat, grasps your soul by its very roots, and rips it right out of you. Leaving a gaping spiritual wound and a hunger that can only be satisfied by more alcohol, more drugs, more food, … Continue reading LOVE US ADDICTS →

"MY PEOPLE" ARE BEAUTIFUL "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross If you have a mental illness or an addiction, you are my people. I "get you" and I know that you … Continue reading “MY PEOPLE” ARE BEAUTIFUL →

FEAR IS A LIAR A healthy instinctive fear of clear and present danger is both unavoidable and healthy. If there was no "fight or flight" response if I accidentally stepped in front of a fast moving car, I'd end up as a large and macabre hood ornament. Problem is, as humans, and particularly humans with … Continue reading FEAR IS A LIAR →