What is Highly Valued among Addicts and Mentally Ill?

Good health is highly valued by most of us! When battling addiction and/or mental illness, good health scale is measured not by losing weight and being fit or aesthetically pleasing. Now it’s a war, a battle, it’s messy, and there are no easy answers and no easy solutions.

We can’t just snap out of it…spend more time on it, concentrate harder or read a bunch of “positive quotes” that end with things that say “hang in there” or “never give up.” Knowing the battle lines are multidimensional and cover all aspects of our lives. Our wellness is valued and measured daily. Good health could be as little as waking up in the morning and getting out of bed.

Sadly, many will measure their health on twisted idolized thinking of this world’s view of fitness. If we have extra weight, we are labeled lazy. If we are unkempt and our clothing messy, we may be labeled vagrants.  We may be looked down upon as weak, unhealthy.  Yet all the while: our strength outshines everyone as we are battling our addictions, our mental illnesses~ fighting a war to save our own life! Good health is highly valued. It is just perceived and received differently. And when someone battling addiction or mental disease achieves remission that’s when I consider it “good health.”

What are my three most important tools in my personal recovery?

1. Planning: having some type of preparation or plan in case of a crisis: preset and established should be number one.
2. Wellness Tools: different techniques work for different individuals. Some people find exercise extremely beneficial to help them deal with the depression symptoms. While others, like myself, sometimes turn to chocolate-chip-fudge-brownie ice cream.
3. Support Network: having a support network of close family friends and relatives that you can rely on when things really get tight and tough is essential. But don’t wear them out. Don’t always rely on the same people over and again. Share the misery and you’ll keep a strong network by not wearing them out. It’s easy to repair a bridge. It’s been damaged, but when you burn your bridges: you become an island isolated…alone.