Your Feelings Are Valid—But They’re Not Always Right

When you’ve been through trauma or addiction, your relationship with emotions changes. They go from something you experience to something that defines you—and that’s where the danger lies.

See, trauma forces you to go deep. You start asking “why” a lot. You peel back layers. You get emotional, introspective, heavy. And that’s good. You have to do that work to heal. But here’s the trap:

You start letting your feelings become your compass.

Shame. Guilt. Anxiety. Depression. These are real, and they deserve your attention. But they’re also master manipulators. They feel like truth—but they’re not always truth. If you treat them like facts, they’ll run your life into the ground.

And then there are the wants:

• “I don’t want to go to therapy.”

• “I don’t feel like getting out of bed.”

• “I just want to be alone.”

• “I just want to feel better before I try.”

Sound familiar? Those wants start stacking up. They feel small in the moment, but they add up to years of lost time, unrealized potential, and pain you didn’t have to keep carrying.

So here’s the truth:

When you don’t want to do the thing—that’s when you have to do it.

When you don’t feel like showing up? That’s when you need to show up.

Because this recovery thing? This rebuilding thing? It’s not about waiting until you feel like it. It’s about choosing the thing that future-you is begging you to do right now.

You’re not a machine. Emotions matter. But you have to know which ones are there to teach you, and which ones are trying to trap you.

So check in with yourself—daily.

Not just when something’s obviously wrong.

Not just when the breakdown hits.

Check in when things feel “fine.”

Check in when you don’t think it matters.

Because those tiny emotional ripples? Left unchecked, they become waves that pull you under.

This isn’t about ignoring feelings. It’s about understanding them.

It’s about separating fact from emotion.

It’s about owning your story, not letting your story own you.

You’ve already survived the storm. Now it’s time to learn how to sail