Sometimes minds don't just get stuck, they get trapped. Trapped in an endless obsessive loop. the worst of these traps is when it becomes physical, then it's called an addiction. An addiction takes over your life, it becomes the focus of your thoughts and actions and you don't care about anything else. You drive your friends away and you steal from your family. You are out of control, way out of control, and you know it, don't like it, but there is little you can do about it.
There are harmful, but not physical addictions, such to your Blackberry, work,exercise, being thin, or the opposite, eating.
There are the obvious addictions: alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, risky behavior,bulimia, things that give that dopamine rush, or things that just make you numb.
I work with people at all levels of addictions. Addictions are insidious because they come in so many forms and that allows for denial and excuses. The addict loses any chance at self-determination. They are worse than stuck. they are trapped.
But, treatment can work. All kinds of treatments for all kinds of people. You've got to find your own special key thatwill begin to set you free. It's very difficult and often painful. It's great when people get their lives back, or even parts of them. It great when you can see brains beginning to work and minds clearing up and becoming reasonable.
Those folks are very gratifying.
The others just stop showing up.
4 comments:
Is it possible to be addicted to a person? Not obsessed, but addicted? Ok, not to the person but to the situation that person creates, the up and down, the fact that the person needs me and I thrive on that, and at the same time I wish I could let it go? But somehow I end up being manipulated into my own relapse. And is this "addiction" my own fault because the "drama" that this relationship creates makes me feel like my life is just a little less boring? And at the same time I don't like it...and want it to be over...
When people fine their way out of the labyrinth it must be wonderfully gratifying. I imagine, however, that the failures really take it out of you.
I just made the decision of what I want to do with my life and I was thisclose to going into addiction therapy. Truly there is nothing I'd rather do than help people find that "key" to getting their lives back. But as someone who knows a thing or two about addiction, I can't deal with the many, many, many, many more people who will never even look for it.
There's black, there's white and there's gray.
It's very hard to reach a person when they are trapped in that gray area.
Post a Comment