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“Not the world, not what’s outside of us, but what we hold inside traps us. We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.”
― Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“I wanted a drink. There were a hundred reasons why a man will want a drink, but I wanted one now for the most elementary reason of all. I didn't want to feel what I was feeling, and a voice within was telling me that I needed a drink, that I couldn't bear it without it.

But that voice is a liar. You can always bear the pain. It'll hurt, it'll burn like acid in an open wound, but you can stand it. And, as long as you can make yourself go on choosing the pain over the relief, you can keep going.”
― Lawrence Block, Out on the Cutting Edge

“Someone who is trying to be sober is often trying to work out deeper emotional issues and is attempting to undo years of habitual behavior. When you reduce recovery to just abstinence, it simplifies what is really a much more complex issue.”
― Sasha Bronner

“Quit while you’re ahead.
All the best gamblers do.”
― Baltasar Gracián y Morales

“Until you find out what you are running from, you will never figure out where you are going.”
― Joseph A, Meyering Sr

“You don't have to be our worst case, to be a worthy case.”
― Courtney Summers, The Project

“If you don’t know how to self-love, if you were never taught how, like a lot of us were never taught how, then you will attempt to fill that void with all kinds of things.”
― Rachel D. Greenwell, How To Wear A Crown: A Practical Guide To Knowing Your Worth

“Prostitution isn't illegal to protect women. Prostitutes would be much safer if it was legal. It's illegal to protect men. Men are addicted to sex. Sex is like heroin to men. If all women were allowed to charge admission to their pussy, they would have total control over men and it would cause a giant wealth transfer. Men would go broke and women would end up with all the money and power.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Inside The Mind of an Introvert: Comics, Deep Thoughts and Quotable Quotes

“Sometimes, no matter how hard we try for someone and hope that they will get better in time �� they never do. Abusive relationships shouldn’t have a key to your chambers of heart. Hold your key and keep it close. Don’t end up getting addicted to such pain or human beings �� for that matter. You might not be Thor but they can surely be Loki & hold you prisoner to their trickster nature.”
― Sijdah Hussain, Red Sugar, No More

“Addiction is a battle between love and hate. My therapist was right about that.”
― Garry Crystal, Red Lights

“Acceptance in the context of adult-to-adult relationships may mean simply acknowledging that the other is the way he or she is, not judging them and not corroding one’s own soul with resentment that they are not different. Acceptance does not mean saintly self-sacrifice or tolerating an eternity of broken promises and hurtful eruptions of frustration and rage.”
― Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“A little money can buy happiness; a lot can buy addiction.”
― Brian Spellman, We have our difference in common 2.

“Constant Reminder - Constant Deterrent”
― D.C. Hyden, The Sober Addict

“Addiction is giving up everything for one thing. Recovery is giving up one thing for everything.”
― Brian Reese

“When substance use progresses to the point of addiction, a person no longer chooses to use drugs or alcohol; they are compelled despite the consequences”
― Mark A. Myers

“A recovery friend of mine once belonged to an AA group called “What’s Your Motivation?�� She said she’d always ask herself that in situations where she had to say or do something she might regret, and she’d ask others as well. She asked me that once or twice. So, you start out by asking yourself that question when the situation arises, and a lot of time you realize there is no good motive behind the thing you want to do or say, so you don’t say it. You don’t do it. After a while, it becomes second nature.

Unfortunately, however, so many people out there are living their lives while untreated for their afflictions. Whether it’s addiction, including alcoholism, or a type of personality disorder, their behavior often stems from how they feel about themselves based on other people’s words and actions, things they had inadvertently taken on and clung to fiercely. They may have a desperate need for attention, validation, admiration, and respect. Maybe their delusions distort their perception of themselves and how others view them. They are so busy worrying about themselves that they are often oblivious to their motives and may not realize how little regard they have for others. In a genuine sense, they are fighting for themselves, but they’re not winning.

Many of us have lived that way once upon a time and, because of it, spent a copious amount of energy on damage control. Knowing we said something we shouldn’t have said or did something we shouldn’t have done and going into this anxiety-ridden desperation to save our “image”—an image that likely isn’t real but a delusion. When we should be more concerned about apologizing or making amends, we’re more obsessed with not wanting to be seen in a negative light and having to act in order to change the negative perception.

It takes recovery, healing, and time to learn that if you are intent on doing the right thing, doing right by people, and having everyone’s best interests at heart, you’ll know how to react and respond to things. And if you ever say or do something you regret, you simply say you were wrong and apologize.

Empathy for others and for ourselves is what makes it possible. It makes us care about how we treat people and the effect it’s having on not only them but on our lives and the lives of anyone who cares about us. We eventually understand that how we treat people is just as important as catering to our own needs.

I think it’s important to understand what made us a certain way in life and to acknowledge that, but then we have to fix it. It becomes our job and responsibility to heal that so that we grow and change. Too many people never get to a point where they can see it, let alone understand it, so those of us who do are quite fortunate.”
― D.K. Sanz

“Addiction to evil habits is a surrender to Satan's grip, a rebellion against God's love, and a sacrifice of one's life to the altar of destruction. When we succumb to addictive habits, we relinquish our freedom, our relationships, and our very souls to the enemy of our souls. But, there is hope in God's redeeming grace, which can set us free and restore us to a life of purpose and victory.”
― Shaila Touchton

“Spiritual exploration ploughs the same ground but is less concerned with ‘fixing�� or improving things than with rediscovering what is whole and has not been absent, just obscured.”
― Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Don't confuse shame with guilt…Shame says, 'I am the mistake,' while guilt says, 'I made the mistake.' You made a mistake, but you are not a mistake.”
― Abraham Verghese

“Sex, drugs 'n' rock n roll, ya dig?”
― Nicci Boots, Bad Luck Boots: A Memoir

“Uh, because then I would definitely relapse. There would be no one to... perform sanity for.”
― Rufi Thorpe, Margo's Got Money Troubles

“An addicts brain engages in all manner of acrobatics to justify her idol.”
― Ashley Lande, The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ

“Service is the secret sauce - the Sriracha of sobriety”
― Michael G., Navigating Recovery: 12-Steps Simplified: A No Bullshit Guide to 12-Step Success and Thriving in Recovery

“Addiction is like a renegade chemist turning your brain's neural pathways into a circus.”
― Michael G., Navigating Recovery: 12-Steps Simplified: A No Bullshit Guide to 12-Step Success and Thriving in Recovery

“There was nothing out of the ordinary in my household, and that’s the biggest problem of them all. The normalization of habitually consuming poison to elude the unpleasantness of subsistence.”
― Joshua Deen, Last Call, Stupid: An Exit From Toxic Drinking Culture

“My soul has learned to harden and soften in equal measure- a flicker of light above the staircase I climb, barefoot still.”
― Diana Kouprina, Borderline: A Poetic Memoir

“I told him I never had whiskey. He said it was a magic cure for heartache. I believed him.”
― Diana Kouprina, Borderline: A Poetic Memoir

“Pleasure seeking and pain management look a lot alike to outsiders. Insiders too, for the record.”
― Kristin Casey, Rock Monster: My Life with Joe Walsh

“The fries are oversalted making me drink more or maybe it’s one of the excuses I’ve learned to repeat to myself.”
― Trista Hurley-Waxali

“The greed of the powerful will lead to the addiction of the weak”
― Victoria Christopher Murray, Harlem Rhapsody