No one's ever heard a doctor make this statement.
Yet, many addicts in our program live as if they were born with a deficiency of their drug of choice.
They spend weeks and months describing their different moods. Talking about their different aches and pains and moods. This hurts. That hurts. This pill makes me sleepy. This one depresses me.
The combinations are endless. As are the drugs they sometimes end up with.
Usually drug seeking clients have a hard time with recovery. And eventually they leave because they can never find quite the right combination. And when they leave they'll revert to street drugs. They're seeking the Holy Grail of chemical perfection. That experience they had the first time they used. But they never find it.
Those who succeed find that - while drugs do serve a purpose - they're not the answer for us addicts.
They learn that life sometimes has bad moods. Our abused bodies have pain once in a while. They learn that it's not realistic to expect to always be in a state of bliss. That sometimes life's a bitch.
When they accept that life can often be a rocky road instead of a smooth freeway they do better. And when they get to that point they're in a state of acceptance that will carry them through whatever they face.
