How un-addiction opens up not closes down your life
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - how un-addiction opens up, not closes down your life.
4 in a row on the booze, but couldn't resist this lovely piece in the Guardian by Matthew Todd
We have concluded that addiction is 'an act of self-care gone wrong' and this article shows just how that happens and some pointers on doing the self-care part without the self-destruct part:
"A great therapist I met at a retreat told me it’s normal to use “things” to dull emotional pain. “It’s just human nature,” she said, and that really helped me realise my worst fears weren’t true – I wasn’t uniquely mad. Life is stressful and we all screw up and we all sometimes use things to control how we feel – alcohol, sex, smoking, undereating, overeating, cleaning, shopping, apologising, underearning, overearning, drugs for some people, countless other things. When I got sober, I realised dysfunctional coping mechanisms are everywhere. Life is hard. No one’s perfect. Understanding that I was just another member of the human race and giving myself a break was life-changing".
"It took me a long time to realise I had a problem, but there were clues along the way. I remember reading an interview in Q magazine years before I stopped drinking in which Elton John talked about how he got into recovery. He said he looked down at the Alps from a plane and was reminded of the heaps of cocaine he’d snorted.
"Drugs weren’t part of my thing, but I related to the bit where he talked about feeling irritable and always unhappy when he had no reason to be.I ran from these signals. I wish I hadn’t.
"You don’t have to wait to hit rock bottom. Addiction doesn’t discriminate. Some of the most amazing people are sober. It’s worth listening to their experiences. There’s nothing to be ashamed about."
(BTW, I understand from practitioners that people get turned away from help 'because they hadn't hit rock bottom yet' and to come back when they had. 😱 WTAF?
We haven't really started on un-addiction yet, but constantly gob-smacked by the institutional attitudes about people who aren't able to control their use of certain products. Madness. The Moral Model of Addiction is alive and flourishing even in healthcare.)
Here from The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/30/problem-drinker-10-things-learned-since-quit-partying-hangovers-self-destruction