Today we discuss creativity in addiction versus recovery and how it interacts with things like feeling depressed, down, worthless, etc. for us. Barriers to creativity that we identify in this episode are getting stuck in fantasy, needing outside validation, falling into procrastination, comparing ourselves to others, and seeking instant gratification. Through discussion we find that positive perception, confidence, motivation, hard work, and consistency are pivotal to being creative without a substance. Simple right? Not always! It's often easier said than done. We discuss the irony: creativity can be an antidote for feeling depressed but feeling depressed makes it hard to access creativity. For us, finding the motivation and confidence without the substance means setting small goals, taking one step at a time, and pointing out the successes along the way. We can let this consistent practice improve our motivation and confidence to use creativity to crawl ourselves out of the hole.

Tool References: Super Powers (Toolkit 1), Persistence (Toolkit 1), One Degree (Toolkit 2)