(First published: Dec 14, 2007)

An underlying fear of life can be both a problem by itself and also lead you into destructive lifestyle practices. 

This can include drinking your way to self confidence, or drugging yourself into unawareness.

I was a rock solid practitioner of both schools of discipline for about twenty years, give or take.

Based on that experience, I can wholeheartedly tell you that neither plan works well for long, if at all.

Your shit is always just beneath the surface, waiting to be dealt with properly.

Your continual attempt to ignore it or side step it, thinking you have a valid plan in motion, is only forestalling the inevitable life crash or worse…actively bringing you heaps of medical, legal, and personal problems on a constant basis.

With that in mind, please check out my latest article:

Bipolar Is Not A Stand Alone Problem

That will cover the introspective stuff. But some of you, who have not heard anything new so far, are already on the road to better living, but need a helping hand during the holidays.

It’s tough to stay straight when the rest of the free world is partying all around you, or so it would seem.

Christmas is about the worst for those who simply must stay sober but are having a hard time pulling it off.

And for you fine people I would invite you to visit my friend up in Canada, Dr. Larry:

Visit Dr. Larry Smith on Facebook

He wrote a book about his own experiences with addictions for those of you who need a little support in staying the course.

Dr. Larry is a good man who also happens to be a chiropractor, triathlete and former addict.

I have massive experience with drugs and drinking and then getting sober. But I’m not ready to focus solely on that part of my life right now.

What I mean to say is, I haven’t developed a teachable system derived from how I got and stay sober.

The way I straightened out has some aspects to it that I can’t easily translate into useable tactics for the rest of you.

But then, that’s me, always gotta do things my way!

If you need this sort of help in your battle against bipolar, I highly suggest you go check out my friend Dr. Larry’s link above.

The photographer of this post’s featured photo: Robert Zunikoff