Quotes About Recovery

It's a mistake to think that if we don't remember or don't acknowledge painful experiences they will just disappear. In fact, great damage is done to us by those phantoms and pieces of memories that swim around in the unconscious, the part of us that never forgets. Unpleasant experiences gain power over us by being denied or hidden, but they can be made to relinquish that power when they are brought out in the open.

Incest is almost always a devastating experience for the victim.

It is tremendously difficult to regain feelings of trust and safety once they have been trampled by parents.

This is emotional surgery, and as with any surgery, the wounds must be cleaned out before they heal, and it takes time for the pain to go away. But the pain is a sign that the healing process has started.

At the core of every formerly mistreated adult —even high achievers—is a little child who feels powerless and afraid.

You are not responsible for what was done to you as a defenseless child.

I estimate the number [of incest victims] to be somewhere between ten and twenty million Americans...

the pedagogy of pain. I am pathetically grateful to the doctors for righting the wrong they had done.

It's fine. I hardly think about it now. It's long gone. Yet there is sometimes the shadow of a shadow, and when that happens I wonder if it could come back. And I don't know, because I don't know what caused it in the first place. My ohysche was turned inside out and shaken, but they never got to the bottom of why.

You know how important you are to me—' 'As important as a bottle of medicine which gets thrown away as soon as the patient recovers

If you are alive and conscious, you are probably codependent.

I may never recover. It was like an out-of-body experience. I'm an alien trying on human rituals.

Being left at the altar was not for sissies. Aside from the humiliation and hurt, there were actual logistics to worry about. Odds were if a guy was willing to leave you standing alone in front of three hundred of your closest friends and relatives, not to mention both your mothers, he wasn't going to sweat the little stuff like returning the gifts and paying the caterer.

He supposed that was the problem. That he'd gotten over loving Katie, but he'd never recovered from losing their friendship.

That I'd get over being publicly humiliated? That your running away wouldn't be the topic of conversation around town for months?" She lowered her head. She'd pulled her long

She hadn't surrendered to knowing she would be dealing with her disease for the rest of her life. No matter what, it would be there. If she needed surgery, she would have to be careful with painkillers. If she had another child, she should probably not get drugs during labor. For the rest of her life, every single day, she would be on guard. Just like every other alcoholic in recovery.

She was very aware of the fact that her first act on the road to healing had been to devastate someone she loved. The shit road of being a drunk never went away.

From the outside, it wasn't much. But to her it was everything she needed. A place to retreat and lick her wounds. Somewhere she didn't have to pretend. Sanctuary.

That's how it is with infants. The minute the pain's gone, so are the tears. If more people would do that, the world would be a happier place.

When tragedy strikes, I must remember to breathe until I get to the fun part again.

During the post-breakdown period, she read books the way an addict swallowed pills. She devoured stories one after the other, trying not to let reality intrude too deeply.

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. —Isak Dinesen

This wasn't about him and his grief. It was about figuring out what was best for Derek's kids. If he started letting himself feel his loss in the depths of his soul, he might get sucked so far down into a dark hole that he'd never find his way out. And that would make him useless to these children.

For the survivors