The Rightness of Addiction
may point your way out of it, if you choose

Oh, my dear addicts, y'all are so dang close to my heart! Having been on both sides, as both a co-dependent and as someone addicted to Clonazepam for 2.5 years, I know my way around this issue. If the word "addict" is hard for you, swap it out with "dependence".

So, what's right about being addicted?

Bet you've never heard that question before. I met someone recently who disclosed that they needed to remain high while in the presence of their life partner. Oof. Can you imagine living with that weight on your heart? To have to be medicated just to spend time with the person who says they love you? Sounds remarkably painful.

Now multiply that times every relationship in the addicted person's life. That amounts to a lot of substance (or other) abuse!

Now I don't pretend to know all the facets of addiction. But I suspect that one angle to it is that the person who's in the grip of it is medicating away their own awareness. So whatever judgments they are exposed to, especially the unspoken ones, are very loud in the addict's body and mind. But they are not affirmed for being super Aware and super psychic. Just the opposite in fact. They are gaslit into the stratosphere. It's no wonder they need the escape!

A great place to start addressing this (if you'd like to choose to wrestle You back from addiction) is to know that you know.

Know how aware and psychic you actually are. Watch for when the co-dependents or others invested in your addiction draw you into their circular, nobody wins arguments. Then based on your awareness and observations - Make new choices.

That's it. Freedom can be yours.

Did I gloss over a whole lot? Yup. Is change easy, not always. Will you break a few eggs? Very likely. Will you be judged within an inch of your life? I'm certain of it. Might you end up alone and/or feel lonely? Probably.

But what happens if you choose you? What happens when you prove to you that you know how to care for you better than the co-dependents "care" for you?

What if you choose what you know is true? How much more can you be you? How much greater can your life be? Can you choose that? There's only one way to find out, and that's to make the leap. I hope to see you on the other side.