My idea of being restored to sanity centers around owning my power in relationships learning how not to let others have all the power, learning not to allow others to control me, no matter how healthy or well intentioned the people I'm dealing with. Initially, many of us come to recovery thinking that it is reasonable to repress our feelings, dislike ourselves, stay immersed in shame, and feel trapped and hopeless. We may come to recovery thinking it normal that people endure being alive and slog through a miserable form of existence. We may think it normal to deny and deprive ourselves. We do not blame ourselves or expect to be free of tangles.
Tangles can be beneficial and growth- producing.
We do not look upon emotions as insanity, but rather as healthy expressions of healthy living. But most of us prefer to stay balanced. Many of us feel that we have never experienced the kind of life we want for ourselves. We feel we are beginning for the first time to develop a manner of loving and living that is healthy. We work into it.