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My Recovery and Healing Server.
> life_of_every_party.ps1
> death_of_every_relationship.ps1> toxic_patterns.ps1. > self_awareness_and_living_amends.ps1> sobriety_and_recovery.ps1> healing_and_unmasking.ps1// Core Information System //Anxiety has been with me since childhood. I’ve used a lot of things to numb it. Cannabis was one of the better ones — until I stopped cold turkey to prep for brain scans, and found out it had a death grip on me I never saw coming. Now I’m in full withdrawals, feeling terrible, sitting in a VA ER. But here’s the thing: this is the first time I’ve ever proactively asked for psychiatric help while completely sober. No substances, no fog. Just me, steering the wheel, advocating for myself. Tonight is a win.
A Christmas letter to my estranged daughters. This year cracked me open in the best possible way — therapy, bipolar treatment, transformation. I’m not the same person I was. I’m not asking them to forget the past. I’m asking for a future where we get to find out who we’ve all become. I miss them more than words. I’m patient. I’m hopeful. I love them with everything I have.
I spent weeks brushing off the warning signs. By Saturday night I was drunk, paranoid, isolating, and convinced my life needed to end. Bipolar had full control and I refused every single person who tried to help. It took two syringes and a really long nap to slow me down. I’m out now, stable, sober, and safe. The lesson this time: vulnerability is the only way out of shame, and letting people in when they offer help isn’t weakness. It’s the whole game.
The last few weeks have been some of the best of my life and some of the hardest. New partnerships, 17 mile walks, personal records, full heart. Also: a shame tornado, then a shame hurricane, then a second wave that took everything out. On my 199th day without smoking I had a lit cigarette in my hand. My tribe showed up anyway. They didn’t wait for me to ask. That’s the whole point. Storms come and go. We don’t have to weather them alone.
Do something every day that scares you. I mean it. Vulnerability isn’t weakness — it’s the whole engine. It’s where love, intimacy, shame-death, and real change live. Brené Brown nailed it over and over, so I’m sharing my favorites here alongside what I know to be true from my own life: when you can open your heart, get scared, and tell the hardest truth to another human being in complete safety, it changes you forever. And it tells you exactly who’s safe to keep around.
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