That's Greta Garbo. Every once in awhile I'll see someone who says she's fed up and wants to be left alone. I think it's a Greta Garbo line, I 'vant to be alone, but it's not hers exclusively. Greta doesn't own it. A person can have a million reasons for wanting to be alone, but one of the more inte...

What accommodations have you made for not-quite-fully-functional gadgetry? You know the kind of thing I’m talking about: that microwave door you open with a tuning fork, or the childhood TV you had to whack with a shoe every thirty seconds to keep the picture coming in clear. Or the cellphone that...

Last year I republished “Patterns and Characteristics of Codependence” from CoDA. These are the Recovery Patterns of Codependence. Codependence Recovery Denial Patterns I have difficulty identifying what I am feeling. I am aware of my feelings and identify them, often in the moment. I mi...

“We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal [to be] that which others have made of us.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre While I’m happy that the election turned out the way it did, I worry about all that’s expected of our new president-elect. Headlines report Obama is expect...

What people think of me is none of my business. That either sounds like a truly noble statement made by a really emotionally healthy person or else it’s a prevaricating statement made by someone who wants you to think they are an emotionally healthy person. I want to show, in tandem with epis...

I was reading Leslie Lung’s book Freedom Of Choice when the answer to this question occurred to me. It was asked at the CANA forum sessions, and it was asked on this blog comments, word for word. So let’s answer this question by exploring the meaning of these three words used: “lov...

I remember walking on eggshells. I remember the fear of saying the wrong thing that may begin another spiral of nightly drinking. I wore a wrinkled shirt to the hospital for a surgery I would have. I was scared but I said nothing. Because my oversized t-shirt that I would be taking off in less than ...

Do you or have you spent a large portion of your life insuring that people like you? Have you bent over backwards for people you may not even know, only to try to get them to like you? Do you or have you ever extensively worried whether someone likes you or not? If you think someone dislikes you do ...

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person living in a (seemingly) insensitive world? That’s a lonely feeling isn’t it? I remember feeling that way more than I did not feel that way. And, of course, because my life has not arrived into a state of Utopia, I still feel that way sometimes; Misunders...

How often I was at the whim of the world, constantly waiting for permission to take care of myself. Perceiving I was under constant scrutiny from the outside world, it would seem I always waited for the world to take care of me. I waited for someone to say, “Well eat something!” or ̶...