Addiction

Reminder: You are free from addiction. 

What if this flashed across your phone screen or appeared suddenly on a billboard as you drove by? Unbidden, unplanned, a written note from a hand unseen? A love note really. A reminder of freedom, 2 Peter 2:19 “for you are a slave to whatever controls you." It's funny, in a peculiar way, to write about freedom from my Canadian kitchen while sipping delicious coffee. It seems wrong somehow. I am so free that I can pick and choose what I do with my time, career, family and friends, amongst other things. This is where freedom becomes dicey. I get to choose my addictions too. Addiction sounds choice less in a world gone mad with narcissistic indulgences. Addiction can be a convenience, or at least it is for me. It is a checking out from responsibility and accountability for my abundant time and the work that is set before me. An unnecessary vacation from an amazing life. What am I addicted to? As mentioned above, convenience. My habits. Periodically I feel addicted to caffeine, sugar, exercise, technology, being right. I also enjoy the drug like hit I get for my ego when I am acknowledged, complimented, noticed. Now let us look at you, Dear Reader. What is your repeated repeat that seems to enslave and control you? Addiction-what if this word is a cover, a blanket that is placed over pain. Pain masked. Pain unpermitted. Pain banished without its respectful due. Covering pain with a thin blanket of distraction does nothing to keep out the cold chilling truth that seeps into the bones and leaks into our relationships. Addiction can present as a physical demand on the body. It can also present as a demand on the psyche. We can be addicted to proving ourselves worthy or stating how very unworthy we are. Emotions and the reactions we indulge in can also be addictive, along with the impact they have on the people we live our lives in close contact with. Addiction can take many forms; in other words, you don’t have to be a crack cocaine or gambling addict to get your fix. Where are we now? When questioned, addiction is forced to answer the why of its existence. If indeed addiction is blanketing your pain, what would getting help look like? Perhaps all you need is an understanding human to come along side you to listen and hear your pain? You need not suffer alone Dear Reader. I leave you with this. You are not a slave. You CAN take control. Let this truth permeate your being, setting you free.