April 14

”If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Bernard Baruch

There is something to be said for the usefulness of a treatment centre. Attending a program for chemical dependency or codependency can be a boon even for a sex addict. It’s comforting to be able to learn from such a place that an addict is an addict is an addict, no matter their drug of choice. It’s also where one can learn new tools for coping with life. As one of my children put it, its parent school, or maybe more generically adult school. Underlying problems of resentment, unresolved feelings and emotions, guilt and shame affect all addicts. These buried parts of ourselves are what draw us back into addictive thinking. Learning to love ourselves, trusting in our Higher Power, and to be open, honest and willing to change are all skills we need to learn to continue our journey of recovery. Without new tools in our tool belt to face the challenges of daily life, why wouldn’t we continue to do things we’ve always done? Therein lays the insanity of addiction. But there is help for us and we can ask our Higher Power for the courage to seek it out.

Affirmation I will explore the place I can get help, even a treatment centre. I acknowledge I need some new tools to cope with the challenges of daily life.