Hello, my Superstars! Today, I’m doing the second installment of my series on triggers. We’ll focus on emotional and outside triggers in addiction recovery. Knowing and understanding our triggers can help us maintain our sobriety and develop successful coping strategies. I’ll also include an in-depth workbook on Monday to help you identify and manage your emotional and outside triggers. You can find part one here.

Managing stress is an important part of recovery and healing. Stress can feel like it’s unavoidable, but with the right tools and mindset, you can navigate it and protect your emotional sobriety. This post will explore common stress triggers, practical stress relief strategies, and ways to help you build resilience on your journey.

When you’re in the recovery and healing world, you’re going to hear the word “trigger” all the time. Unfortunately, it’s one of those words that’s also become overused on social media. That doesn’t mean it’s lost validity in our space, though. In fact, identifying our triggers is a crucial part of our recovery and healing process. I understand how overwhelming this can feel, so be gentle with yourself as you’re learning about and understanding your triggers. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be doing a series on triggers. This is part one.

Today, we continue our conversation about betrayal trauma. The first post was published on Monday. This trauma may stem from dishonesty, infidelity, or breaches of trust, whether emotional, psychological, or even physical. If you've experienced these, my heart goes out to you. I want you to know that healing is possible, and there are different approaches to guide you on your journey

I experienced betrayal trauma during the disclosure of my husband's pornography addiction and everything that came with it. Thankfully, with hard work from both of us, I've healed, and he has been sober for over a decade.

When most people hear the term betrayal trauma, they think of a breach of trust in a marriage. But betrayal trauma can happen in many relationships—partnerships, families, friendships, even workplaces—anywhere trust has been deeply established.

This trauma may stem from dishonesty, infidelity, or breaches of trust, whether emotional, psychological, or even physical. If you've experienced these, my heart goes out to you. I want you to know that healing is possible, and there are different approaches to guide you on your journey.

Whether you're quitting drugs, alcohol, pornography, shopping, gambling, or another unhealthy behavior, knowing the first steps to take can help lay a solid foundation for your recovery. In this post, I’ll guide you through essential first steps, tools for your recovery toolkit, and tips for navigating relationships and setbacks.

The holidays are right around the corner—like days away. For some of us, holidays are a great opportunity to connect with loved ones, whether family, friends, or both. For others, it means navigating being around people and situations that trigger us. We need to learn ways to handle those triggers so we don't have anxiety that may lead us to a setback in our recovery or healing.

I'm about to sound old, but "back in my day," the approach to recovery was limited. We either went to rehab, AA, jail or died. Or we could do what I did and quit cold turkey, but as I've said a million times before, I don't recommend that approach. 

Thankfully, the days of old are long gone. We've learned so much about our amazingly ever-adapting, malleable brains. Yay, science! Now, there are so many approaches to recoveries to choose from. It's up to you to figure out which one is right for you. My only recommendation is that you don't do it alone. I tried to recover and heal alone, and that was a terrible mistake. Whichever path you choose, please find a Sobriety Circle to surround yourself with.