“When we grieve, we naturally allow ourselves to feel the anger, hurt, disorientation, and sadness that are a part of the processing pain. These feelings are the healing process and by feeling them we can allow them to dissipate, we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel” (Dayton, 2007. p. 187). Sometimes, we are taught at a young age that crying and grieving is only for children. We are taught that this release of emotions is not appropriate to have and that we need to bottle it in to avoid the feelings. Not being able to show our emotions or acknowledge them allows for depression, anger, and sadness to overcome us inside and not in the healing way. We then turn to self soothing to ease the feeling creeping in on us. “As adults, then, reaching for something that will make us feel good is natural. Addiction and self-medicating can be seen as attempts to replace what psychologist call “the good mother,” to find a reliable way to feel that sense of oneness and equanimity we enjoyed as a child” (Dayton, 2007. p. 201). Addiction comes in many forms from self-medications, drugs, alcohol, food, activities, etc. Whether a good or a bad addiction we learn that they help us ease the pain and/or forget about it all together. Like many families, I have grown up where there are times to grieve and a time to hide my feelings. It was not alright for me to grieve about my parents’ dysfunction or loss of behavior from addiction. I was not allowed to cry, feel angry or express any of those emotions when one of my parents would fall asleep on the couch and not be able to take me fishing or to my team practice. I turned to eating as a self-medication as a way to self sooth myself. I moved out of the house at 18 to Duluth, where the distance allowed me to forgive my parents. I have worked through the painful emotions and issues to develop a bigger, stronger, lasting