Joanne Smith realized she was missing self-compassion in her recovery, pushing herself relentlessly while her inner critic called her efforts insufficient. She calls this harsh self-talk "the thief of recovery" because it sabotages progress even when you're determined to heal.
And I never saw this until probably the last few years, how little compassion I had for myself. And that is a big part of the puzzle that was missing. So if you relate to that and you're anything like me and you're like, right, I'm going to do this despite, I'm going to fight, I'm going to find a way to get well, I'm going to get through this, I'm going to, I'm going to get strong, I'm going to, I'm going to do Anything and everything, and I'm, I'm going to push myself to do this because this is going to get me well. And there were no, like, well done, Jo, you actually did that. And it was talking to myself in a quite harsh, harsh manner, pushing hard, thinking that it's not good enough, feeling like I'm constantly failing because there's no improvement. It really is the thief of recovery.
