recovery pains @recoverypains - Tumblr Blog

To those of you that fear recovery because you’ve become so comfortable with your suffering:

You don’t notice it leave. It goes away slowly and you don’t even notice it’s gone until youre happy and content.

You won’t miss it. It won’t hurt. You won’t be empty. I promise it will be so much better than your head tells you.

This is true, with the caveat that recovery is a circle. You go ‘round the circle many many times, and each trip around gets a little easier, and the things you learned the last time around help this time around. For those of us with severe, chronic mental illness, recovery may never be 100% complete. I will never not be mentally ill. But I can be better.

Coping mechanisms that I used to be terrified of losing I no longer need anymore. Emotions I was too frightened to express now come naturally.

You may not ever be “well”, but you can be “better”. The work isn’t easy and it isn’t fun, but it is so so so worth it. Even knowing now what I know–that I am in many ways irreparably damaged emotionally–I am SO much more alive than I was twenty, even ten years ago. I know myself. I understand my brain, even when it’s being hateful.

Recovery is hard, but not recovering is harder. Don’t let your brain tell you otherwise. ‘Comfortable’ does not mean ‘easy’ or ‘good’.

noorskitchen

One of the most challenging things I’ve had to learn is that healing must be intentional. There is no one golden day that comes and saves you from all your misery. Healing is a practice. You have to decide that it’s what you want to do and actively do it. You have to make a habit out of it. Once I learned that, I only looked back to see how far I came.

purplebuddhaquotes

“Healing is layers. Healing is time. Healing is excruciating. Once you think it’s done, it’s not.”

— Mary DeMuth

purplebuddhaquotes

“The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.”

— Juliette Lewis

pochacco

i am stupid for free. no one pays me to be this stupid and i think that’s very brave

onlinecounsellingcollege

Until you heal the wounds of your past, you are going to bleed. You can bandage the bleeding with food, with alcohol, with drugs, with work, with cigarettes, with sex; But eventually, it will all ooze through and stain your life. You must find the strength to open the wounds, Stick your hands inside, pull out the core of the pain that is holding you in your past, the memories and make peace with them.

lyanla Vanzant

4a0000-deactivated20180901

The universe: tells me a hard truth

Me: this is so stupid

tenderqueerthings

tenderqueerthings #40, Mar Pascual. 2016.

aintnosuchthingastoothick

Them: So you’re just gonna love yourself? Like all of you? The flaws too?

Me:

fraeuleinrabenschwarz

Friendly reminder that the purpose of recovery is not always to not experience symptoms anymore. Some mental illnesses can’t be cured and they’ll stay with the recovering person for their entire life. In this case recovery is about learning about the illness and learning how to deal with the symptoms in a healthy way. It’s not leaving it behind but finding a way to live with it.

richtide

it doesn’t matter how good you’re doing, those sad nights will creep up on you from time to time and that’s ok. doesn’t mean all your progress is gone

undeniableemotions

captaindibbzy

9. “Incurable” doesn’t mean “It will always be exactly as bad as it is right now”

Ten things they don’t tell you about life with chronic physical and mental illnesses. My friend just put this up, and this one just kind of struck me. I’ve got depression, anxiety, and a “chronicly instable” ankle. None of them are likely to dissapear forever. But that doesn’t mean things won’t improve. (via highanxietiessupport)

I was listening to a really great guided meditation the other day (I’m so sorry I can’t remember who it was), and it said “even chronic pain is not the same day to day, each day is different, each day is new.” And I’ve been telling myself that in the mornings to shake out any fear or anxiety I have.

My therapist once told me that when you live with chronic illnesses you have to work very hard to not think you can predict the future. You get so used to coping that you are prepared to cope at any moment. You’re on red-alert, and any time you are hyper alert you have a hard time living in this moment.

gonna try and remember this stuff

(via fats)