One of our halfway house clients told me a few days ago that when he was in his addiction he "never hurt anyone." Just himself.
And this is a statement I hear often. In fact, I said it more than once in the early days of my own recovery.
It was only later, when I became more seasoned in my recovery, that I recognized that I did I lot of damage to others when I was using.
To those of us with families and loved ones the damage is obvious. Even if we didn't steal material things from them, our addiction caused much pain.
Because we took something from them that was much more valuable. We let them down. We didn't live up to their hopes and dreams for us. We weren’t in their lives. We weren't present. We didn't show love and kindness.
Instead, we were out hustling for drugs. Or, as in my case, we in prison for crimes we committed in pursuit of euphoria.
But who did we hurt if we had no family left? In that case we still did damage. We opted out of society. We weren't a contributor to the world at large.
Instead we were indulging in self-gratification that got us in trouble. The world spent money to process us through the court system. To feed and house us while we were in jail or prison. To supervise us while we were on probation. Kind of like being on welfare.
None of us who pursue our addictions do so without harming someone. Whether it be someone close. Or the world at large.
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