Category: Uncategorized
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When someone around me gets upset, I can go into fight or flight. I might also freeze, unable to take action, or fawn, becoming intent on coddling the other person into calming down. Whatever my response, I usually treat other people’s feelings as something that requires a correction from me. It took me a long…
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Sometimes I relapse in my emotional sobriety, often at work. I binge on worry, anger, or feeling victimized by circumstances and people. When that happens, sometimes it feels like I’m getting an F in my program. Shouldn’t I be doing better by now? Today, if I’m trying to pull myself out of an emotional relapse,…
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At work, I’m often surrounded by people, sometimes under tense conditions. On any day, one of my coworkers could easily be having a rough time—feeling angry, frustrated, negative, struggling to see the good in anything. In my general inclination to take responsibility for others, I could take this as a cue to adopt these feelings…
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How many times do I pray for direction as I’m working? Do I believe that my Higher Power can help me with anything and everything, or do I still believe it’s all up to me? The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous considers it nothing short of delusional to believe that “we can wrest any happiness…
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I always felt like I didn’t quite belong. In any group I was part of, I usually suspected other people were hanging out without me—and I was usually right. When I got into recovery … I still felt that way sometimes. It took me a while to learn that I had to get comfortable with…
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When I’m stressed, I often go into chameleon mode. I think I need to be everything everyone wants me to be. Otherwise, my disease tells me, I can’t be safe. I won’t have enough. If I’m carrying this thinking around without realizing it, I’ll inevitably bring it to work with me. I’ll hesitate to take…
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For some people in recovery, career success — the kind that makes a good post on social media — follows as they work the Steps. But that doesn’t happen for everyone. At least not right away. Most of us see rewards as we practice the principles of recovery at work; our bosses notice our patient…
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It’s often heard in the rooms: “An expectation is just a premeditated resentment.” If I’m feeling discord at work today, can I sift through my own thoughts and actions to find the expectation that is giving me trouble? Maybe I think everyone should follow the same etiquette that I do in shared spaces like kitchens.…
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It’s often hardest to work my program with the people closest to me, and that includes the people I work with. How do I know they’ll be able to handle the changes I might make? How do I know everything will turn out okay? Today, if I’m having trouble working my program at work, I…
Recovering at Work 