From Privileged Addict Quotes 3

     Below is a selection from Privileged Addict Quotes 3. The other book I’ll be publishing in conjunction with Anybody Can Take Steps is Privileged Addict Quotes, which will include the substance or essence of everything I’ve written on addiction. Editing is well under way for Anybody Can Take Steps.

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“I started getting better when I started hearing what I didn’t want to hear and doing what I didn’t want to do.”

“Being recovered has nothing to do with what I’ve learned or read or blabbed on and on about with a therapist. How ridiculous the notion that we can talk our way into recovery, when all addicts do is talk.” 

“Who and what we are is the sum of what we do. We do not talk or study or pill-pop our way into recovery. We act our way in.” 


“Words and ideas are but dormant seeds – devoid of power unless grown and cultivated via rigorous and repeated action.”

“Relapse is NOT part of recovery. That’s the whole point of recovery. You don’t relapse. This sort of waiting room wisdom is exactly the kind of nonsense I had to toss out of the window in order to recover from addiction.”

“The term ‘miracle drug’ is an oxymoron, as miracles only occur in the absence of drugs. Drugs such as methadone and suboxone are incompatible with miracles.” 

“Drugs, regardless of class, are the antithesis of the spiritual life. True spirituality is about facing reality and living in it. To make an insane drug addict sane again requires quite the opposite of dissociating from reality.”

“Clinicians believe the implied scientific notion that a lack of dopamine must be met with more dopamine, and this approach is one of the primary causes of addicts failing in recovery.”

“It is precisely our addiction to comfort that must be dissolved in order to accept life as it is, on life’s terms, as a human being that suffers from time to time.”

“Many addicts never employ the solution because that would actually involve some work.” 
 

“You can tell ourselves whatever you want to, but that doesn’t change the fact that pot is a drug and it is affecting your brain, and you will suffer when you run out. Ayn Rand brilliantly said, ‘You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.'”

“You just simply cannot give up and you cannot stop moving forward. There is no secret, no complex modality, no miracle drug and no special new formula. The answer is simple: hard work and God.”

“The status quo continues to deny the spiritual nature of addiction and the moral necessity of recovery and therefore, we are beginning to see addiction and our selfish behavior rationalized and even justified under the guise of the disease model.”

“Real kindness and real love is not allowing an addict to continue lying to themselves… and then showing them a solution that actually works.”

“Make no mistake that the lies an addict tells himself are the primary ingredients of a lethal overdose.”

“Compassion doesn’t work for drug addicts, so don’t waste your time. Addicts need to be shredded and humbled beyond belief… and then built back together one spiritual brick at a time.” 

“Enabling is a moral hazard. It feeds, fuels and thus perpetuates the very behavior you want to eradicate. It sends the message to the addict that we can continue to use or drink or do whatever the fuck we want because you will ALWAYS take us back and shower us with love, food, shelter and money.”

“If someone around you is a complete disaster, the bar has been set pretty low, and some codependents feed off of that. Us being sick makes you the hero, and empowers you in a maladaptive way. The enabler may get something out of being the caretaker, and uses the illness to conveniently avoid themselves. Our addiction is your bridge to insanity.”

“Treat the core of the addiction and the chemistry in your brain changes.”
 

“An addict is simply a child in an adult body.”

“Once we figure out that life includes both emotional suffering and physical discomfort, and once we figure out that we are no different from the 7 billion other human beings on earth, we can grasp the practical idea that feelings don’t have to stop us. Addicts must accept the fact that it’s okay to suffer. As well, we must stop resisting the way we feel. What we resist will persist. We must accept and befriend our negative feelings, understanding that they are part of us. In this way, they move along and eventually dissipate without crippling us.”

There is no such thing as a drug that can effectively reduce cravings, or obsessions rather, as cravings refer to the physical process of withdrawal. Once we are cleaned out, there are no cravings.”

“There is no reducing obsessions via pharmaceutical intervention, and drugs that claim to do this are just placebos. It has always amazed me the degree of ignorance among the medical community when it comes to addiction. And more important than getting too deep into that is the fact that any drug we take to aid our recovery will negate that portion of our recovery. In other words, we will fail to accomplish for ourselves what the drug has accomplished for us. Drugs of this nature in fact rob us of our recovery.”

“To hold an addict’s hand is to cripple and paralyze them.”

“If we become so disgusted by drugs and alcohol, by what they do to us and to others, we will repel them viciously as instruments of pure evil and never even think about picking up again. All we have to do is care deeply and profoundly about the consequences of our actions and we will be free from drugs and alcohol forever.”

“The twelve step process doesn’t fail anybody. It is we who fail ourselves, and it is we who fail the twelve steps.” 

“Addressing addiction scientifically fails to remove our condition of insanity.”

“Considering addicts are essentially preoccupied with self and self-comfort, the trick is to be okay without depending on this adjusted homeostasis, if you will, the condition of needing above-normal amounts of dopamine to be okay.”

“Why is sobriety something to be celebrated when nobody should become an addict to begin with? Why is becoming normal and non-abusive again something that deserves praise and recognition? Isn’t that the wrong message to send to a group of people who are trying to rid themselves of self-pity, delusion, arrogance and grandiosity?”

“Um, no, I don’t celebrate anniversaries. Addiction and alcoholism is something to be left in the dust as we continue to run the other way, forward, and begin to amass ‘actual’ life accomplishments.”

The degree to which we change is directly proportional to the action we take. Recovery is not a function of time or clinical application. It is a function of what actions we take and at what frequency we take them.”

“When we give ourselves to God, we are essentially giving ourselves to the cultivation of, and the obedience to our conscience.”

“Achieving physical sobriety is not an accomplishment, it is a requirement. Becoming recovered is not an accomplishment either, it is our responsibility.”

“When I understood that my previous life was guided by an impulsive and narrow frame of mind based on fear, pride, arrogance, insecurity and self-will, it was then I also realized that getting better involved the removal of this frame of mind.”

The view from inside an addict is very narrow and narcissistic.”

“What a travesty that God has been replaced with methadone.”

“We need not make any apologies for our relationship with God, as it is the single most important thing in our lives.”

“Addiction isn’t complicated and neither is the solution. You just need some guts.” 

“You have to remember that while having a broken body and an abnormal reaction to drugs and alcohol is a permanent situation, having a broken mind and being powerless is a temporary situation.”

“When an active addict tells you they are a really spiritual person, you are dealing with someone who is suffering delusions of grandeur. “ 

“Just walk right through it. Walk through the pain. Walk through the fear. Walk through the depression. Walk through the endless thoughts and the heavy feelings. Walk through it like a warrior and God will reward you.”

“Addiction is a consequence of doing the wrong thing, while recovery is a consequence of doing the right thing.”

“Addicts must continue to employ the false solution of drugs in an attempt to mask the damage they are doing to their conscience.”

“Believe me, regardless of how sweet and talented and innocent you think you are or you think your child is, every addict in the world puts considerable effort into destroying their bodies and their minds enough to cross that line and become an addict.”

“The truth is that the Twelve Steps are not really about alcohol and drugs but about clearing a way and delineating a practical path to God.”
 

“The humility of feeling powerless over drugs and alcohol is truly one of the best things that can happen to a drug addict or an alcoholic.”                 
 

Every Kid Gets a Trophy?

     Just like holding an addict’s hand, which fails every time, giving every kid a trophy cripples them. It stifles individuality, suffocates creativity, breeds dependency, encourages laziness, and relegates each and every child to the ash heap of mediocrity. If children are never allowed to fail, they are simultaneously never allowed to succeed.

     Furthermore, if you tell kids they can do something they really can’t do, they will set unreasonable expectations for themselves and be perpetually disappointed and discouraged. Giving everyone a trophy ends up having the precise opposite effect that you intend it to have. It is also a degenerate philosophy at its core, similar to the entitlement / victim mentality that makes addicts and alcoholics addicts and alcoholics.

     The most successful people in the world achieved great things by taking risks, failing, getting back up, and jumping in once again with both feet. They courageously leaped into the great unknown, avoiding temptations of the status quo to settle for the illusion of job security. Even more important is having the freedom to make our own choices and take risks that others choose not to take out of fear and cowardice.

     The ‘every kid gets a trophy’ mentality, like the Common Core approach we see in state-sponsored education, robs children of the choice, and therefore the opportunity, to distinguish themselves among others, think independently and creatively, reach their full potential, and become who they are. It teaches kids to caste themselves among part of the collective. Don’t fall for it.

     This sort of social programming will eventually destroy and enslave the authentic mind, despite the fact that our greatness was realized through individual freedom, not servitude to the state. Albert Einstein was a non-conformist and he changed the way we see all of creation. Perhaps we should think twice before we push our children back into line and allow their originality and uniqueness to fade away as they join the masses of zombies, robots and sheep.

     The same thing is occurring in other extensions of our social fabric such as academics and economics, but hey, no worries, if you want to give everything you have to a corrupt government, indebt your children and brainwash yourself at a ridiculously overpriced liberal arts college for 200k without the slightest hope of employment in some useless field, be my guest…

     …or we could try being ourselves, developing an actual skill set and building something of our own. Get outside of the box, the miserable status quo, and make yourself known. Don’t let yet another pompous intellectual elitist tell you what is wrong and right, how to live your life, and what we must do ‘collectively’. Listen to your heart, your gut, your soul. You know deep down who you are and what is right and true.

     Oh, and by the way, the kids who lost the soccer game all know the trophy is bullshit, so don’t insult them. If you hold a child’s hand too much, when you let go, they will fall right back down, incapable of doing anything on their own. And if, like the powers that be, that’s what you want, shame on you.

God Response

     I thought I’d post another response to someone who asked about God. She wanted me to define God and so forth, which is something I don’t really care to do, but as I often feel obliged to reply to everyone, I had to write something. I suppose the basic premise is that until we have witnessed or experienced this kind of Power, the power of the Holy Spirit, it is sort of useless to describe it, talk about it, write about it or even read about it.

     I believe that God is part of our fundamental make-up. If we are not God-conscious, we are simply detached from ourselves, from who we are, which is why atheism is just a figment of our imagination – it doesn’t really exist. To deny God is to deny reality. Conversely, when we are God conscious, we are connected and in harmony with ourselves.

     I personally was born a Christian and will remain a Christian forever. My relatives growing up were like country club Episcopalians – a few carols on Christmas Eve, a bullshit Christening here and there. More important was intellectualism and believing oneself too smart for God. Also more important were things like booze and moral relativity. Today I take the word of Christ more seriously, but that said, I still fail miserably and with frequency. As well, I don’t give a shit what anybody else believes or how they choose to get to God. I believe in freedom.

     Plus, when you or your loved one is dying from alcoholism and heroin addiction, you no longer care about the specifics. The only thing that matters is just finding God somehow so that we can survive, heal and start giving back to those we have hurt. The only thing anyone cares about is that a miracle occurs.

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     It is indeed an interesting question, the God question, and I wish I had some better answers for you, but when it comes to God, I’m afraid I don’t.

     I don’t really define God or try to even conceptualize God, and find it somewhat arrogant to do so. I wrote a piece about God as a concept with some T. Merton quotes, which I’ll share below, but how do we define an unfathomable, limitless power and intelligence? God is so beyond human measure and concept, I believe few of us understand just how mind-blowing this power is that we are talking about. 

     The simplest explanation I have is that God is and has always been an unlimited Power that runs through everything and is capable of anything. I have witnessed miracles that defy (to this point, anyway) scientific theory. At the same time, I feel there is no conflict whatsoever between God and science, as science has only shown to us just how incredible life and creation are. How can we explain the beauty and perfection of nature without assuming divine intelligence?

     At any rate, the truth is I have no definition or concept of God, as God just Is. I don’t understand God and I don’t claim to. All I know is that the power of God is completely beyond human comprehension. That being said, when you have felt or seen or touched this great Power, it is easy to understand and begs no definition. When we have not, or when we are shut off by our mundane, dualistic, physical existence, it is hard to understand and we begin trying to define and conceptualize God. This is why you have so many stupid people trying to own God, and even worse, using their man-made concepts to justify all sorts of nonsense, which has nothing to do with God or His power. I think it best we try to show some humility and stay underneath these things.

     I believe if we understood the delicate brevity and fleeting nature of physical life, we wouldn’t have quite so many problems, but then again, who knows. We are very narrow and foolish regarding these matters, thinking we know everything and are so powerful, when the reality is quite the opposite. Humans are forever flawed by the dual nature of life. Having a physical existence but a spiritual nature will forever keep us ignorant and disconnected to some extent. I guess I just think that we are so clueless to what is really going on, that why bother going there? Why not simply perform and do things that get us closer to this Source, things that benefit us and others? 

    We really give ourselves far too much credit. We think we can manipulate the world and everything, but we cannot. Many theories are proven wrong at some point. The only fact seems to be that there is a natural cycle to everything.

     While I can readily admit I don’t really know anything, I do know there is a spiritual realm that many are unaware of. I’m quite sure, as I have witnessed things, that there is much more going on than we can see, hear and feel. And finally, regarding my personal spiritual experience, I pretty much describe what happened to me up North in my book, which I’d be happy to send to you if you want to shoot me your address. Thanks again for writing, and bless you.

God Isn’t a Concept
How Does God Remove Your Mental Obsession?
Spiritual Realm
God Brass
God Proof
Rebirth

*Note: I have forgotten to this day to send that book out, so mark my words… the package goes out tomorrow. My profound apologies for the delay.