Laurie’s Positive Points: Be in touch with your addictions.

I observe that everyone has an addiction. It is something we all have to manage and deal with.

It looks like about 90% of people have addictions—the rare few who do not. Addictions are something we need to observe and watch, and when we go into more unbalance within our addictions, this is the time we need to pay attention to them and choose differently to have a different outcome with our addictions. 

So we must stay on task with monitoring them or it. Often, people have many addictions, so they usually alternate between a few, so we may have our time and effort in addressing this constant battle.  

I went to many 12-step groups in my life, and this is a beautiful and helpful way to support ourselves in managing it. So, if you are in touch with your addictions, this is one external resource that works if you work it.

So know addictions come into a place of being more problematic if we allow them to. So, finding sources as support makes a phenomenal difference. 

My observation of 12 Sep groups was that they are a structure that allows people to show up and listen to the people there who share. They may read from the 12-step book or listen to all the shares and be able to share their own experiences of their addiction, so I always appreciated the people there sharing and that I got to share what my addictions were confirmed for me. This part was helpful.

The 12 Step groups encourage people coming for support with addiction to choose a sponsor, which is someone willing and able to show up and take on the task of talking with you on the phone to figure out how the sponsor and the person with an addiction can work together so that the experience of the person with an addiction will improve because they are taking the time and effort to change their behavior and thinking with some help from the sponsor. 

Sometimes, people do not want to admit they have an addiction or several, so this isn’t easy. If they do not feel comfortable acknowledging this, they do not make and take the time to work at them.

So, the benefit of accepting them is that they can initiate steps to resolve or at least keep them in check. When people get their addictions to a place where they do not actively suffer over them anymore, it is a gift beyond measure. Hence, we need to start watching our minds to see when we get off kilter and start engaging in expressing our addiction in an unhealthy way, which sure does not help us.