Posted by emmanuel98 on May 16, 2012, at 17:23:34
In reply to Re: There is always hope » Phillipa, posted by Cyndi Michelle on May 16, 2012, at 12:17:06
Hi and welcome - Nobody really reads the newbie forum, so you should post here from now on. But I went and read your posts and found them very helpful. I have been working with a Dialectical Behavioral Therapist very intensively since last summer, after a suicide attempt. I also was unloved as a child, though my whole upbringing was a mess and traumatic and I did fine until I reached my mid-40s. Then I became addicted to opiates and alcohol (I think my daughter turning 12 and making me think, barely consciously about the mess I was in at 12). I saw a good psychiatrist and after a while, he felt that medical solutions were not going to help me, that I needed to do DBT and learn to live a happier life. One of the prime tenets of DBT is to learn to be kind to yourself, to treat yourself with compassion.
I'm learning. AA has helped me a lot, since it allowed me to make friends and develop intimate relationships with people, where I had been very isolated before.
But I'm finding you're right. Happiness is found in caring for yourself and for others. There is this prayer in the 11th step chapter in the AA literature (not sure where it came from, but it's old) and it says things like, let me bring hope where there is fear, let me bring joy where there is despair. I find it very soothing to think about and try (not always successfully) to live by such principles.
poster:emmanuel98
thread:1017999
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20120217/msgs/1018043.html