Redmayne

In recovery, I often find that when issues of self doubt arise as to my7 sobriety. It's necessary and helpful to ask myself,'Is this me or is it my state of mind?'. Critics may argue they're one and the same thing.

However the secret is, especially for those in recovery like me, casting aside the delusional life lead in my drinking days and resolved to find and become my true self. The person I was always meant to be before being struck down by my alcoholism.

Is to merge the person I am in reality and the person I see myself as in my mind, something I'd suggest we all do.

No easy task, given the distractions of our daily existences, but it is attainable and something worth striving for!

Not least asa in recovery it provides a greater sense of purpose to our sobriety and counters and avoids periods of , however big or small, self doubt or worst of all, procrastination.

Personally speaking, to do this I find Marie Jahoda's - Ideal Mental Health (Google it) in which she details the qualities, after much research, of ideal mental health which she attributes to normal people, a useful benchmark. Worth looking at for me just to keep a check on how I'm doing...it helps me and may help others.

In the same position as me, single and through a mixture of choice and circumstance leading what might be construed as a rather lonely, isolated existence.

Although in my defence I have to say, I enjoy my solitude, admitting I do get lonely at times , but like both recovery and life itself. Most of the time, it's just a state of mind....and we can all do something about that.