Darkness to Dialogue: Living Well With Mental Illness

Summary  Do you ever react in ways you later regret? In recovery, the difference between reacting and deciding can define your progress. By learning to pause, reflect, and choose intentional responses, you gain control over your healing journey and build resilience that lasts. Quick Insight Reacting is automatic; deciding is intentional. In mental health recovery, pausing before responding allows you to manage emotions, make healthier choices, and strengthen long-term coping skills. Learning to Pause in Recovery Recovery from mental illness isn’t a straight line. For years, I believed that healing meant suppressing my emotions or never stumbling. But the truth is, emotions are going to happen; they’re unavoidable. What matters is how we respond to them. For me, reacting meant snapping at loved ones, shutting down, or spiraling into shame. These patterns kept me stuck in cycles of guilt and frustration, even as I was making progress in other areas of life. Over time, I realized that...

Patterns or Personality? How to Tell the Difference in Mental Health Recovery Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes Summary  When you’re healing from mental illness or trauma, it’s easy to confuse learned coping behaviors with your true personality. This post explains how to distinguish between patterns and traits, why this distinction is important, and how it can facilitate genuine change in your recovery journey. Key Takeaway Patterns are learned behaviors shaped by environment, trauma, or mental illness, while personality traits are more stable, biologically influenced tendencies. Recognizing the difference helps you change what’s changeable and embrace what’s authentically you. When I Thought My Patterns Were Me I used to believe my avoidance, people-pleasing, and overthinking were “just my personality.” Friends described me that way. But when I began my healing journey, I learned these weren’t my true nature, they were survival strategies I’d developed over years of stress and trauma...