Happy New Year! - A

On 15th of June 2013, "L" and I decided to create 'Perks Of Recovery". We started it for many reasons, but mainly to help other people with their recovery, as well as help our own.

We wanted to remain anonymous, as we didn't want people from our school/our family to find out about it, but we decided that it was time for us to remove our anonymity. So...


Hello everyone, my name is Alyssa. I don't know exactly what I should write about myself, so I'm just going to share my New Year's resolutions with you;

Be more organised

I'm really unorganised and messy so my first new years resolution is to keep my room tidy and to stay on top of my school work. To do this I need to...

1. De-clutter my room by throwing out all of the things I don't need/use any more.
2. Make sure there's a place for everything and everything's in its place.
3. Remove any distractions when I know I need to do homework.
4. Stop procrastinating as much as I usually do.
5. Write things out - make checklists/to-do lists and 'reward' myself when everything is done.

Exercise more and eat more healthily

This resolution goes hand-in-hand with being more organised for me really, because I need to be more organised to make sure I stick to my resolution of exercising more often. I want to become a healthier, more energetic person. To do this I need to...

1. Drink more water.
2. Consume more fruits/veggies!
3. Do something productive when I'm bored instead of having a snack.
4. Stick to the monthly blogilates workout calendars.
5. Go for a run/walk at least once a week.
6. Buy more fitness gear so I'm more motivated to use it - haha!

So, those are my "main" New Year's resolutions, but I also have some resolutions for my recovery too.

1. I haven't self harmed for quite a while now, which I'm proud of, but I still have the razors/blades that I used because I wanted to keep them 'just in case'. I know that old habits die hard, so I need to get rid of them now - it's like a recovering drug addict keeping some drugs stashed away "just in case". I need to remove all temptations to make it harder for me to relapse and easier for me to recover - I suggest you all do the same.
2. Remove negative thoughts/people from my life.
3. Stop dwelling on small things - I sometimes let things like small, petty negative comments or embarrassing moments drag me down and stop me from doing things that I want to, so I need to push these thoughts out of my head, focus on the future and think about what I want.

I think it's important to set yourself goals for your recovery, and for your life in general. Keep it small and reachable - if you set yourself huge goals too soon you might end up being disappointed. Write everything down and tick things off. Write steps of how you're going to achieve your goals.

I went to an assessment day called Ignite in November with The Challenge Network, and we were given a task; we had to write down where we wanted to be in 20 years, then 10 years, then 5 years, then 1 year, then 6 months then 1 month. We had to start with 20 years then work our way down, as it made us think about our ultimate, long-term goal, then think about the steps we need to take to achieve that.

It's important for us to think about our futures. WE make OUR OWN futures. YOU are responsible for your future. Remove negative thoughts of your future. Picture where you want to be and make it happen. I want you all to know that anything is possible and, no matter what you're going through, you can have a great future and you can recover, you just need to grab every opportunity you possibly can and take it. That's what I've started doing and, I'm telling you, my future is looking better already.

Make 2014 your year.

-A