I am sitting here thinking about the wide variety of addictions and wondering what the differences and similarities are between them? Take gambling addiction and drug addiction. Or sex addiction v's a shop lifting addiction. All of them offer an escape from reality, escape from having to connect with oneself and feel ones emotions. They are all a means of trying to fill a void within oneself, as the person feels something within them or their reality isn't adequate. All addictions are a creative adjustment which the person has unknowingly created in their world to assist them to cope with something, that otherwise they think they do not have the self support or environmental support to deal with. Pretty smart really. Smart but painful. As the addiction will never deal with the underlying problem. It will never permanently ease ones pain or troubles. It is ALWAYS going to return once the high from the last big win wears off, or the heroin starts to wear off. So hence the horrific cycle of addiction. Until someone is prepared to take a look inside oneself at the 'problem' or 'pain' or whatever it may be, develop a different set of coping skills and learn how to self support and gain support from one's environment, addiction will never be a cure. It will continue to destroy and ravage the persons life, as that is addictions inherent nature. 


Thankfully there is another way. It may seem so scary and almost undo-able but its actually nothing compared to how scary and painful the cycle of addiction is. Its just that addicts know addiction and they are unfamiliar with looking inside oneself and facing ones pain. How could an addict know if they have never done it. I remember a story about a little girl who was being badly abused by her mother. She was beaten and was burnt with cigarettes. When the police and social ser came to take the little girl away someone took a photo of the little girl being carried away by a social worker. The little girl was in tears reaching over the social workers shoulder reaching out and screaming for her mum. See the moral of the story is that even pain is preferable to the unknown. The unknown can be terrifying. But I can guarantee it's no where near as bad as active addiction.