Best 16 quotes in «addiction recovery quotes» category

Today I share about my addiction and recovery journey as often as possible because I don't want to die all alone in a dark closet, shrouded in shame beside the decomposing skeletons I tried so desperately to hide. I want to live.

To explain the metamorphosis that takes place in the process of recovery from addiction, we have to wait for that physiological change to occur -you can’t rush it, it will happen in its own time. Imagine trying to teach a caterpillar how to fly. The poor thing might listen, take flight lessons, watch butterflies darting around. But no matter how hard it tries, it won’t fly. Maybe we get frustrated because we know this whole day has it in him to become a butterfly. So we give him books to read, try to counsel him, scold him, punish him, threaten him, maybe even toss him up in the air and watch his flap his little legs before crashing back to earth. The miracle takes time, we must be patient. But just as it is natural and normal for caterpillars to become butterflies, So can we expect addicted individuals, given the appropriate care and compassion, to be transformed in the recovery process. The metamorphosis is nothing short of miraculous, as people who are desperately sick are restored to health and a “normal” state of being. So don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself, be grateful that you have a disease from which you can make a full recovery.

Master books, but do not let them master you.

Willpower, though important in its own way, is never enough. In order for you to be truly powerful, you must open up and trust in something beyond yourself—something you cannot prove for certain.

Addiction beggins whith the hope that something 'out there' can instantly fill up the emptiness inside.

No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.

It is time to embrace mental health and substance use/abuse as illnesses. Addiction is a disease.

Deepening awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of one’s thoughts fosters a new relationship with them, creating the space to purposefully shift mental focus away from the ruminative thought patterns that pave the road to suffering.

How sad that I couldn't get myself sober to share a life with him, but I could do it to show him I didn't need him.

Once upon a time the future was supposed to be brighter, shinier and more fun. When did that vision pass? When did the word 'new' lose it's luster? Now the past is supposed to hold the hopes we once confided to the future. We're directing attachments that used to go forward backward.

Never has nostalgia held stronger sway; never has the belief in the redemptive possibilities of the future seemed so laughable.

Not maybe. Definitely! We have an expression back home in Haiti, which says something like ‘a man who is thinking with his penis.’ That is what you are Michael. That doesn’t mean that you are addicted to sex or pornography. You are not a pervert of any kind. Contrary! You are just too sensitive with women. You fall in love at the blink of an eye and all your decisions are based on your passions towards a particular woman. Your mind gets blurry because not enough blood goes to your brain. And your heart pumps all the blood back to your penis and that is why you are a man who thinks with his penis.” (Ch.7)

The fear of the drugs running out is managable-the fear of time running down isn't.

Resentment is like a drug. Once you pick it up, it will only get worse and worse until you surrender and do the work to let it go.

Saying things like "you must hit rock bottom before you can rise up" is just an excuse for not doing the effort of rising up earlier. When you hit rock bottom you must rise up - because you have no other option.

The fear of the drugs running out is manageable-the fear of time running down isn’t.