It's like a train wreck. We want to look away, but we can't. We sit by stunned as they flash mug shots of favorite movie stars drunk and disheveled across the television screen. Beloved talk show hosts are fighting obesity in public. Super models, every bone visible, are speaking up about eating disorders. The story of the day is a politician or prominent sports figure caught in an infidelity scandal. It's extreme. It's dramatic. It's addiction.
Addiction is out of the closet and into the spotlight. Treatment centers for every imaginable addiction are popping up like mushrooms. What does this do for the average person? It lessons the stigma that was for so long associated with addiction, and it helps you understand that you are not alone -- that addiction can happen to anyone, anyplace, anytime regardless of race, gender or financial status. The seven signs of addiction are:
- Questioning. People who don't have an addiction problem don't wonder if they have a problem. It's simply not something they think about because they don't need to. The mind is funny in that way. If we're paying attention, the mind tells us what we need to know whether we want to hear it or not. If it is haunting you with questions such as "What am I doing," "Why do I keep doing it," and "Why can't I stop," take note. Your problem may have crossed that line into addiction.
It doesn't matter whether it's alcohol or shopping, drugs or clutter, eating or not eating, gambling or infidelity -- if it's causing problems, and you can't quit even though you want to, then it is an addiction. The good news is that there is help ranging from treatment centers and anonymous meetings to individual therapy. Very few addicts find successful, long-term recovery without a support system.
The ultimate goal in recovery is to be happy and free -- free to live life boldly and unafraid, to embrace others and the world around you without the burden of addiction. There is a whole world out there waiting for you to shine your light on it and, through brutal honesty and seeking help, it's possible.