"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo
This is a famous saying from Pogo, a cartoon character from the early seventies. But I like it because it reminds me that we addicts like to blame others for our addiction. And once we realize who the real enemy is we can work on ourselves.
I recall that before I got sober I had every explanation in the world for my addiction. I was an abused child. The world had it in for me. I never had the advantages that others did. It was always someone or something else that was responsible - not me.
And that's the pretty much the story with our clients. They always want to change the outside world. And then everything will be alright. When the world does what they want they'll be able to stay sober.
But that's not the way things work. Getting into recovery requires us to do a lot of internal work.
Once we look into the mirror we can see the enemy. Our job is to make the enemy our friend.
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