Well said. I think perhaps we do run from addiction to addiction and in some cases back again. And what is underneath this behavior? What drives us to act in this way? I wish I could give a singular answer to this. But I cannot. We are a bit like lost children, who having found ourselves wandering in the forest, become panicked and begin running in this and that direction. Finding solace in passing a familiar tree, we take comfort, only to realize that we are running in circles. This increases our anxiety and we begin to run faster and faster, only to find ourselves further in dire straights.
Perhaps the key is to finally understand that we are lost. But if we are lost, then it is possible to be found again. The basic truth of dualism. If we agree that a thing exists, then we must also agree that its opposite is also present. Perhaps the answer is to balance between the two and come to find our peace in that balance. Addiction may be a lack of balance in life.
Perhaps the key is to find ourselves, accept our short comings, understand that we are imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect world. Perhaps, we should acknowledge that we are children who are lost in the forest. And that forest has a name, it is called self.
There are so many different facets of addiction that it reminds me of a patchwork quilt with multi-colored individual patches but all sewn together in uniformity. I've always maintained that every facet of addiction is interrelated one to the other. One might stop chewing tobacco but end up spending too much time and money at a casino or overeating. What I'm trying to say is that addictive behaviour will manifest itself in another different addiction if the original addiction is no longer active. An example of this is that there are people that haven't had a drink of alcohol in 25 years but smoke marajuana daily. We need to be aware of how other addictions can sneak up on us and present us with other serious problems. I would prefer not to participate in a debate about which addiction is less harmful and find addiction to be a sickness and not a moral issue. My only concern is to get people to think about how they can solve their addictive delemna. As humans we're the total package. Every aspect of our behaviour affects us in so many other ways. I'm convinced that we need to address ALL addictive behaviours in order to recover. It's taken a lifetime of addiction to come to the conclusion that the patchwork quilt of addiction that we cover ourselves with need to be addressed one square at a time. It is my intention to live my remaining time on this earth free of all addictive behaviour. Recovery isn't just not participating in a particular behaviour it takes work. Excellent for us for recognising our addictions and being up to the task of doing something about it. breather
