“In recovery, the wish to keep indulging without consequences doesn’t vanish suddenly. How many of us hoard, ruminate, fidget or pump ourselves full of coffee or nicotine, or go the other way with exercise or rigid dieting? Old habits die hard, you say? Consider that quitting may not end our problems–some say quitting exposes our problems.”
~ Joe C., Beyond Belief — Agnostic Musings For 12 Step Life
There are two kinds of addictions. Substance Addictions create pleasure through the use of products that are taken into the body. and include all mood-altering drugs (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, etc.), food-related disorders such as overeating, and so forth.
Process Addictions, in contrast, consist of behavior that leads to mood-altering events that provide pleasure and distraction from our core issues, to which we can also become addicted.
When we get right down to it, recovery from addiction is about learning to deal with the stresses of life in a healthy way, “living life on life’s terms,” as they say in the 12-Step rooms. Early in recovery these stresses include the process of learning to do without our drugs of choice, whether chemical or external. This is withdrawal, and it creates a very real chance that we may look for and find other addictions to take their place.
Some of the activities that frequently become substitute addictions are listed below. Continue reading
My name is Bill, and I’m recovering from sex and love addiction.
There. I said it. Continue reading
There’s something different about nicotine addiction and the way people view it, as opposed to other drugs. I think it’s the lack of perception of immediate harm, the “this won’t be the one that kills me” factor — truly insidious denial. Along with that, I believe, goes the knowledge that giving up nicotine is truly throwing away one of our last crutches. When you put down the nicotine products, you’d better be ready to take recovery seriously, because that’s about all there is left — or so it must seem.
We see folks with remaining and/or substitute addictions as often as not. Continue reading
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Stumbling along the Middle Path, one day at a time.
Recovering Out Loud
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Stumbling along the Middle Path, one day at a time.
Stumbling along the Middle Path, one day at a time.
The Middle Path, One Day At A Time
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