From my son, I learned that sobriety comes to outweigh all the excitement – big weekends and bursts of pleasure – that drugs provide. He says that being clean lets a person build a life of substance rooted in real relationships with people who truly care about him, and a career he’s proud of. Life unfolds to be profoundly gratifying without drugs. Jeff says this was the biggest realization of all.
My reflection: I still have a hard time understanding the true power of drugs. The excitement, the party, and the high life that drugs provide are foreign to me.
Today’s Promise to consider: The juxtaposition that drugs entail is still confounding to me. They are parallel worlds of ecstasy and agony. I’ve heard many addicts say that they couldn’t quit drugs because of the deep comfort they provide, but all I saw were the devastating effects they had on my son and family. There is so much to learn with addiction.
Every time I asked my counselor a question about addiction he would give me an explanation and after he finished I would pause in contemplation respond, I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I mean, it didn’t make sense to me! He finally said this, here is the simple way for you to understand addiction, a alcoholic climbs atop a 30 story building and jumps off and after each floor he says, so far, so good!
Pat, What a great example. Addiction – so confounding and baffling. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.