There are many reasons why I blog, but an email from a family friend really captured much of why I have found blogging so rewarding. We connected via LinkedIn and he found my blog website on my profile. He kindly sent me the following email:

Keep giving and you will benefit from the giver's gain in all ways, as you are surely already aware. Speaking loudly and clearly in testimony reinforces your own behaviors and self expectations. Notice how the Mormons send all their youth out into the world clad in white-shirt-tie mounted on bike back? I suspect it’s not so much a function of “convert the word”, as it that aforementioned reinforcement of self expectations.


This blog has helped me self-identify as a person in recovery, as an actual writer, as someone who has something to give to this world. It's very different than thinking of myself as Carrie the Weight Loss Wonder Goddess. It's something that means something to me and to others. It's not unimportant for me to be able to use my writings and my experiences to help people, but that alone doesn't keep me blogging. Knowing that I can't help people if I relapse is very helpful, however.

Nonetheless, this blog has been a tremendous reinforcement of my own recovery.