Published June 14, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Recovery is already hard work. It requires patience, honesty, and the courage to face your patterns head-on. And just when you’re starting to find a little rhythm—life shows up. Something unexpected happens. Something painful. Something completely outside your control.

And then something else hits. And another thing. Because that’s how it always seems to go. When it rains, it pours.

A bill you weren’t ready for. A fight you didn’t expect. A wave of loneliness or shame that sneaks in when you thought you were finally doing okay. Suddenly, everything feels fragile again—and the ground you’ve been rebuilding starts to crack.

That old familiar urge creeps in: rip something, buy something, just escape for a second. It’s not even about the card or the item or the money. It’s about comfort. Control. Relief. When the world feels unfair, our nervous systems crave something—anything—to quiet the storm.

And the spiral starts to feel reasonable.

But here’s the thing: the spiral always offers fast relief, and always leaves deeper damage. The fallout might not come right away—but it always comes. And you know this—because you’ve lived it.

That’s why, when life hits you mid-recovery, the most important thing you can do is reach out. Text someone in your support group. DM someone who gets it. Drop into a meeting—even if you feel like you don’t belong there that day.

You do. That’s what Collectors MD is here for.

Recovery is not about perfection. It’s not about feeling great all the time. It’s about staying honest, especially when everything in you wants to hide. It’s about choosing connection over compulsion. It’s about proving to yourself, one moment at a time, that you don’t have to go backward just because the world threw you sideways.

The spiral is always there. So is support. You get to choose which one you step into.

#CollectorsMD
When things fall apart, don’t fall in alone.

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