Addiction Is A Treatable Disease One Word Captions

Addiction Is A Treatable Disease

Addiction Is A Treatable Disease - Statement Of Intent

Having survived the despair of addiction, including a major aftershock, I am carrying the message of hope to stillsuffering addicts by raising awareness of addiction as a treatable disease. Too many people die of addiction or suffer a living death, whilst too many others think their desperate plight is self-inflicted.

I use metaphors because objectifying addicts would reinforce these prejudices and because any permission given in active addiction is unreliable.

Left in turmoil when my first wife abandoned me, I also abandoned fidelity before inexorably descending to Hell. A taste for forbidden fruit became insatiable, leaving me roaming a moral quagmire, obtaining my now essential ‘fix’ by mercilessly deceiving and destroying vulnerable women.

Weakened by internal conflict and suicidal thoughts a spiritual path seemed unattainable. Broken and burning I reached rock bottom before entering rehab in despair. I was held incommunicado, tearful from detox, rebellious, and still hurting.

Light slowly reclaimed darkness whilst addiction still laid false and dangerous trails. Success and sobriety followed but when I complacently stopped going to meetings I was soon on a slippery slope of deceit and make-believe. I became trapped by fear in an affair until my wife discovered it and drank herself to oblivion.

I was starting treatment for Prostate Cancer and my wife planned to leave as soon as that finished.

Working with a new therapist I rejoined a 12-Step program and started a new group now helping 60 addicts recover. I discovered that my first wife’s infidelity was a survival mechanism, that my future depends on relinquishing control to others, that I must stop making life choices based on make-believe and never stop going to 12-step meetings.

I have regained my wife’s respect, and helped her through her own illness. We are on our firmest foundations ever.

(296 Words)