Comments on: Tips And Tricks For Surviving A Mental Illness #5 http://kristinbell.org/2007/08/01/tips-and-tricks-for-surviving-a-mental-illness-5/ certifiably insane! Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:36:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: kristinbell http://kristinbell.org/2007/08/01/tips-and-tricks-for-surviving-a-mental-illness-5/#comment-40 Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:55:49 +0000 http://kristinbell.org/2007/08/01/tips-and-tricks-for-surviving-a-mental-illness-5/#comment-40 Col, thank you for such a wonderful response! I’ll have to check out deepak chopora too! I wonder how many people who AREN’T full-fledged alcoholics use alcohol to take the edge off and as a mood relaxer?? It does seem like it is a slippery slope. I’m sorry about your dad.

]]> By: colio2007 http://kristinbell.org/2007/08/01/tips-and-tricks-for-surviving-a-mental-illness-5/#comment-39 Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:10:37 +0000 http://kristinbell.org/2007/08/01/tips-and-tricks-for-surviving-a-mental-illness-5/#comment-39 kristin, this message is so important, and i feel it does not get much attention because of the whole “cool” issue you mentioned. people are thought to be “no fun” if they don’t drink. unless of course they’ve officially come out as an addict — they we let them off the hook (but even then, not always).

i myself drink a lot of the times as a means to be social. my girlfriends and i go out for wine, that sort of thing. but i go back & forth on whether i should use alcohol as a relaxer. and whether i should use it at all. some days a glass helps me take the edge off. but it doesn’t help me solve the more important issue of why i have the edge. why i can’t cope with my day without some sort of an escape. why i can’t loosen up and have fun and say what i’m really thinking when i’m 100% conscious.

my dad has struggled with serious mental illness his whole life. while he did pursue therapy for a few years, he stopped before he made any major breakthroughs. and unbeknown to the people in his life, he was increasingly heading down the path of alcoholism for the past 2 decades … slowly and quietly. then it all blew up and he was suicidal AND addicted to alcohol, sleeping pills, and painkillers. the pain he was trying so hard to avoid spread like wildfire. as the saying goes: that which you resist, persists.

i just read deepak chopra’s “overcoming addictions” and the description in there about the progression of various addictions is really astute.

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