MY CHAINS ARE GONE
Addiction is confusing,
heartbreaking, life-stealing - the list
of adjectives could go on and on.
And yet, in the beginning, addiction
makes sense. For those in the throes
of addiction, or for those who are
watching someone they love sink into
addiction, you need to understand how
and why it begins. It’s kind of like
building a chain. To understand how
the chain can be broken, we have to
under stand how the chain is made.
We all have problems and issues in
our lives that haunt our thoughts. Some
problems haunt more than our thoughts.
Losing a job is emotionally hard, but
not only do your thoughts tell you
“how am I going to survive without a
as well…no money for rent, food,
clothes and medical need for you and
your family; constant rejection while
looking for a new job, no money for
gas to go looking for other jobs and/or
the cell phone to call and receive calls
regarding prospective employment,
and this list can grow! This is a fairly
common scenario. What about those
of us who have tragically lost loved
ones—perhaps a child, or those
who have been physically, sexually,
emotionally and/or mentally abused.
(The list of heartbreaking problems and
tragedies could go on and on.)
It is a pragmatic decision to look for
a way to help numb enormous pain and
ability to at least put one foot in front
term. Pragmatism. A pragmatist is a
problem solver. That sounds like a good
thing, but an example of a pragmatic
decision can reveal its problems.
In 1956, The Interstate Highway
System was begun as a way to quickly
and safely transport military troops to
and from various seaports and military
bases. It was to be completed in 1974.
This was a very pragmatic decision to
solve a very real problem. But when
Eisenhower signed the National System
of Interstate and Defense Highways
Act, I’m not sure he and the legislatures
who drafted the bill really considered
project. What has happened is that
most goods shipped in the U.S. are
being transported on those highways;
and most U.S. citizens do almost all
of their traveling from city to city on
them as well. As the project continued,
because of the extreme and constant
travel on the highways, routes that had
already been built began to require
more repair and upkeep than what had
been originally allowed for in the bill,
so building new routes was delayed.
Also, some communities refused to
have some of the routes go through
their towns, so alternate routes had
to be planned and built. Due to these
(and other) issues, the entire system
a pragmatist makes decisions without
fully considering all of the possible
That, my friends, is exactly how
addiction begins. A pragmatic decision
to self-medicate without considering
can medicate for a while, I won’t get
addicted”).
Next time we will consider link two -
euphoria, friend and foe.
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