Relapsing into Relapse

Relapse happens often. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is often PART of recovery. Really.

Step one: Learn to not be so frustrated with yourself as though you have fallen from grace because you are human and relapsed. It is okay. It is really okay. I promise you.

Step two: You must learn that you're not necessary back at the beginning just because you relapsed and are ill again. Any progress you made or good experiences you had are NOT negated by your current relapse. You will use them as you try to recover again and you will know better what to do and what not to do. You will be more aware. Use it.You will get to the place you want to be eventually. It may take a while. It may be a rough road. But you will get there.

The things we struggle for the most are the most rewarding in the end. Your LIFE is important and you are struggling for a healthy, happy one right now...and when you get there...it will be fantastic.

Step three: Hang in there and keep trying to get help for the things you need. Sometimes in order to GET a real life, you have to put your current life on hold. You have to stop and take the time to get real help. It will be worth it in the end. Because the end will be your new beginning.

The Rope

There’s a rope attached to you. It’s tied around your waist. The rope hanging from you is long. Very long. And way at the other end of it is Hope, Recovery, Health, and Happiness. These four things are melded together to form New Life.

So, you’re at one end of the rope and New Life is at the other. But it’s up really high. And you’re down really low. How are you going to get to it?

Well, the first thing to remember is that if you begin to climb up to reach New Life and you let go…or you slip…or even if you fall all the way—you’re not going anywhere. Because you’re still attached to that rope. It’s tied around your waist. You’re okay. Sure, it’ll be tiring to begin your ascent again. But New Life is a great goal. You want to reach it. Sure, you might slip down the rope again when the going gets hard. But New Life is a great goal. You’ll want to reach it.

So you’ll keep going.

Use your strength. Use your desire. Keep looking up at New Life and know—really know—that you will get there. Believe.

And remember you are attached—tied—to it. You won’t fall away from it completely as long as you want to get there. The only way you’ll plummet way down—far away from New Life—is if you take your own two hands and untie the rope from your waist.

But you don’t want to do that, do you?

So don’t untie it. But…

You can let go. You can slip. You can fall. Give yourself room to fall. Room to slip. Room to climb. TIME to climb. And you’ll get there. You’ll reach it. Eventually.

It won’t be easy. It’s an uphill battle. It’s sometimes a struggle. BUT it’s also a triumph.

Think of this as you climb. Remember this analogy and feel secure.

And one more thing—at the top, where Hope, Recovery, Health, and Happiness are melded into New Life, there will be a lot of people cheering for you.

I’m one of them.

"I invite you to live."

The world is waiting for you. It's waiting with open arms and a smile. All you have to do is live.

Though this attempt to live can be the single greatest thing you ever do, it is in fact probably the most difficult thing you will ever do. You may even think you are living right now. And perhaps you are. But I can tell you, if you do not feel "alive," you are not living. If you are not nourishing your body and your soul, you are not living. If you are not being honest with yourself, you are not living. If you are hating yourself, you are not living. If you are not breathing, you are not living. If you are weighed down by a variety of things, you are not living. If only one of these things is true, you are not living.

This is not to say that "living" requires complete happiness every moment of every day. Living life means experiencing the bad with the good, but when the bad consistently and greatly outweighs the good, you are not living. You may be trying to live, but you are not living.

Do not confuse existing with living. The two are very different indeed.

Somehow, we forget to live. Really live. It's difficult to even pinpoint exactly how this happens, but it does. All too often. And before we know it, we are lost in the crowd, lost in the troubles, lost in the pain, lost in the life we think is a life simply because it is a reality. Maybe no one ever told you this, but...

You can change your reality.

I invite you to live.

-Arielle