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Originally Posted by linen53
My newest lesson is regarding addictions.
Those who are addicted to a substance are always viewed as weak. Something very, very bad. The addicted destroys trust.
In today's society so many have addictions.
Then I thought of the person who is addicted. All the negativity surrounding them from society as well as their own inner wellspring of negativity.
Then I wondered if the Powers That Be have the same negativity towards those who are addicted. And I got the answer no.
I wondered about that. Maybe the alternative to addiction is suicide. If that is the case maybe addiction helps that person at least get through this life. Maybe getting through a life is better than suicide. At least they are still learning about life.
So maybe an addiction is not a bad thing. Maybe it's only a different way to cope.
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How I see this is that people who are addicted to something (whatever it is) are just emotionally insecure...looking for things outside themselves to make them happy or at least to give them a brief respite from their troubling thoughts through indulgence of the senses, leading to the activation of the brain's reward system. Ironically, those troubling thoughts are usually (if not always) instigated by those self same people who say addictions are "bad" and "display a weak character"... those who judge and criticise them for not being able to live up to their unrealistic expectations or what they consider to be socially or morally acceptable. This just creates a vicious cycle and eventually leads to guilt "I know I should not be doing this...but I am doing it anyway...what a terrible, unworthy person I must be".
If an addict tries to give something up for the sake of another, that is never gonna work...they need to do it for themselves and not for a reason like "doing this is bad" because even if they DO manage to break the addiction to one thing, what generally happens is that they will substitute it for something else...I went from being addicted to weed, to being addicted to cigarettes, to being addicted to caffeine, to being addicted to sugar, to being addicted to oversleeping (when I gave up the stimulants which were keeping me awake) and now, my whole philosophy is that I would like to be healthy...not that such things are "bad" and I am/was a "bad person" for indulging in it, but if I want to be healthy..if I want to get back into doing Hatha Yoga full time, I will need to detox...and toxing myself isn't really conducive to a detox ..they work at cross purposes.
So the point is not to focus on how "bad" an addiction is, but what is it that I need to do to grow and not remain stuck? and as unfortunate as it is, those who believe they are doing a good thing by abusing and berating you if you have a relapse are better off out of your life...totally cut off until such times you can deal with your own issues without their "help".