A short YouTube discussion where Jason Karsten, Ashley, and a third speaker offer practical advice for people beginning or stuck in recovery. Key recommendations: immediately reach out for help and community support; accept vulnerability and the need for help; take recovery one day at a time by prioritizing daily actions; and set up a small, trusted accountability network plus a concrete plan to maintain progress.
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For someone at the very start of the recovery after discovery, what key piece of advice would you offer to ensure they're on the right path to healing and transformation?
If you're just starting this journey or you're. You've been it for a while, this isn't, this isn't just for everybody who's just starting it. You could be currently in it because you could be stuck spinning your wheels. Just remember that you don't have to do this alone. There's strength and community, and the key is to get help right away, to reach out. Right now, there are many great organizations trained to meet the specific needs of the individual and the couples. But I will say pure desire is amongst the tops in this work as we walk with those in need through what might be the darkest period of their lives. But I might be a little bit biased as I say that. So here, here, here's how we begin. It's one thing we have to accept that I need help. And if you're struggling and you're spinning your wheels, you've been in recovery for a while, there's probably a piece of denial that you're not accepting in the need for help on a more vulnerable level and asking for help, this doesn't mean that you're weak at all. So it just means that, hey, I am having a hard time trusting community. But this is where you're going to heal. So remember, you're taking a brave step towards a better future. And this is just like planting a seed for lasting change.
Yeah. The key piece of advice, I would say at the end here, and it sounds a little cliche, but it's that you can only do recovery one day at a time. But there's some deep truth there because we can get overwhelmed by all the things we need to do or the groups to join and steps to take. But the truth is we need to every day ask the question, am I making my recovery a priority today? And what can I do today? Because if we do that well today, then we get up tomorrow and we say, okay, how do I make my recovery and healing a priority today? And days turn into weeks and months and years, and we'll look back and see, wow, I've become a different person. Our marriage is in a different place. But you can't do that all at once. You can't plan that. Years and years of recovery you can do today, though. And what, what does it look like today to make your healing and recovery a priority and go after that with an intensity, with a priority? Do it. And then tomorrow get up and do it again, and you will look back and see some incredible things that you thought you could never achieve as a person, as a couple, in a family. But it happens one day at a time. So what can you do today to take that next step? Go after it and get up tomorrow and do it again? Anything you would say, Ashley.
Mine, because I love to make excuses for myself and be like, I'm fine now, is to right away get those couple people that you allow them to ask you how you're doing, what are you doing to work on your recovery? What are, you know, what are you currently involved in to keep your recovery moving forward? I need that. That's going to be my first step. When I'm feeling that shame and that pain, that's great enough to make that change is to make sure I have something in place so I don't stop when I'm like, oh, it doesn't hurt as bad anymore. I don't have to do these things. So get your support, then make your plan.
