Thanksgiving Gratitude: Discovering Renewal and Freedom at Serenity Vista
Like everythingin life as an adult, addiction and recovery are matters of choice. In either case, the decisions that someone in active addiction makes- and not necessarily the external circumstances around them - make the most difference in shaping their lives. As dripping water fills a bucket, so do one's choices add up to fill his or her life. Whether it's filled with peace or misery all comes down to the choices made over time. Small things become big things. In addiction, what starts as casual and seemingly innocent flirts with substances use can quickly snowball into full-blown chemical dependency. It all starts with small decisions. It's easier to make a right choice early on. That same choice - to refuse a drink or pass up the pills for instance - is significantly harder to make in late-stage addiction. At some point, a line is crossed between excessive use and active addiction.
In addiction, the choice of whether to use, or to continue using or drinking once started, is lost. Stopping drinking or using drugs may be a choice, but staying stopped in alcoholism or other addiction is no longer an option. Then the choice becomes one of whether to acknowledge the problem and reach out for help or not.When we examine addiction deeply, we see cause-and-effect as an underlying force and common thread. Too often, it's easy for alcoholics or addicts to look outside themselves and place blame elsewhere. And while external forces do play a marginal role in shaping one's life, it's unwise to give them more credit than is due. Doing so relinquishes power to them. Instead, it's far more useful and empowering to recognize that our choices, more than our environment, determines the outcomes in our lives.When fighting addiction, this kind of personal power, combined with sustained and effective professional treatment, cannot be underestimated nor matched. It should be clear by now that one's choices, added over time, determine his or her own path in life. Whatever path you find yourself on, whether it's preferred or otherwise, look deeply and far back. Try to recognize what choices led you to that path, and which ones have kept you on it. Usually, it isn't hard to see.
What is hard, however, is changing course once you're on one. In the case of active addiction, the course is often solidly set. Habits become like stone and equally hard to break. Small patterns, which start off as soft and supple cobwebs, over time become strong steel cables. This is why, even though addicts know the difference between right and wrong, they continually make destructive choices. Decisions become habits. Addicts will tell you consciously the difference between healthy or harmful choices. But ask them to choose what is in their best intereston any given day, and it's suddenly not so simple.When you combine compounding choices with the fact that addiction is a disease, you begin to see why addicts struggle with choice making. Addiction erodes the ability to choose.
When the choice is to ask for help, the recovery process begins to return the ability to make healthy choices. To recover, addicts must learn to avoid making poor choices, especially those first few dominoes that cascade into larger problems. To do this, addicts must also learn to unlock their personal power. Empowerment that comes as a gift of recovery. A gift that starts with reaching out for help.Finally, addiction is a disease. As with any serious illness, addicts need professional addiction treatment.If you struggle with addiction, you can choose to reach out for help. If you want our help, pleasecontact us to learn how to unlock your personal power and transform your life. The choice is yours. Make it your choice to change your lifetoday!
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