Second Pilgrimage To Recovery PLLC

06/03/2026

There are more than one side of depression. What people see and what they don’t see.

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

There should always be reminders that when times are tough, there is always a much positive brighter side. Positive Affirmations PTSD Recovery Series

06/02/2026

Be patient with yourself, and remember: healing begins when we treat ourselves with the same compassion we offer others.
You deserve peace and growth, even on the hardest days.

06/02/2026

DBT Skills. DBT for Substance Abuse (SUD) & Addiction. Mindfulness.
Mindfulness practices are especially important in the early days of abstinence. Many of us use high-dopamine substances and behaviours to distract ourselves from our own thoughts.

When we first stop using dopamine to escape, those painful thoughts, emotions, and sensations come crashing down on us.

The trick is to stop running away from painful emotions and instead allow ourselves to tolerate them. When we’re able to do this, our experience takes on a new and unexpectedly rich texture.

The pain is still there, but somehow transformed, seeming to encompass a vast landscape of communal suffering,
rather than being wholly our own.

When I gave up my reading habit, I was gripped in the first several weeks by an existential terror. I lay on the couch in the evening, a time when I would normally reach for a book or some other method of distraction, with my hands folded over my stomach, trying to relax but instead feeling full of
dread.

I was astounded that such a seemingly small change in my daily
routine could fill me with so much anxiety.

Then, as the days passed and I continued the practice, I experienced a gradual relaxing of my mental boundaries and an opening up of my awareness. I began to see that I didn’t need to continually distract myself from the present moment. That I could live in it and tolerate it, and maybe even something more.

Reference: Dopamine Nation. Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Anna Lembke. M.D.

DBT - Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, 2026, All rights reserved.

06/02/2026

The first step in PTSD recovery is understanding our symptoms and giving ourselves grace.
Learn more about your symptoms and paths to recovery with the PTSD recovery book series: https://bit.ly/PTSDRecovery

06/02/2026

Addiction vs. Recovery

Addiction asks, “What can I escape from today?”

Recovery asks, “What can I build today?”

Addiction takes away freedom. Recovery restores it.

Every day in recovery is a step toward healing, growth, and a life worth living.