“If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be… The more subsidies you have, the less self-reliant people will be. Therefore the Master says: I let go of the law, and people become honest. I let go of economics, and people become prosperous… I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes as common as grass.” Tao Te Ching, 57

     I saw this coming. Science and doctors have become so progressive and so co-opted by big pharma and the nanny state that the culmination of hundreds of years of advancements in science, medicine and technology have resulted in this new, groundbreaking, cutting edge treatment for addiction: shooting junkies up with heroin. Yup, nope, not kidding. See for yourself…

 ‘Ithaca Mayor Wants To Let Heroin Users Shoot Up Under Nurse Supervision’

Above is a taxpayer-funded shoot-up room in Switzerland. Germany, Belgium and Denmark also assist heroin junkies in their efforts to shoot up. Holland, England, Spain and Canada are running trials as well. Tax dollars at work;)

     I also heard some addict today on the wildly collectivist NPR. She was answering questions about her memoir and experience, and needless to say, was towing the party line about how we need more funding, more harm reduction programs, more nonsense. Nothing new. Newsflash: more government and more taxes and more programs and more laws won’t change one single thing.
   
     Addiction is not the fault of a lack of government or a lack of tax dollars, of doctors who prescribe drugs or pharmaceutical companies who manufacture OxyContin. It is not the fault of your mom or your dad or the bully in school or the boss who fired you or your town that sucks, or yup, even social injustice. Addiction is OUR fault. We and we alone make ourselves drug addicts, and if we want to get high, we will find a way to get high, regardless of greater screening and prevention education and less pills on the shelf. Useless. Trust me. If you remove all of the OxyContin, we will just shoot dope. If you remove all of the dope, we will just drink ourselves to death. If you remove all of the booze, we will start eating mushrooms in the woods until we either find the ones with psilocybin or die from poison.

     My question is, besides the fleeting benefit of illuminating some stuff and maybe relieving some parents or spouses from guilt, what’s the point of writing about the truth if addicts now have the socially and morally acceptable option to just roll into the hospital and shoot up, courtesy of people who actually have the courage and the decency to get up sober in the morning, work hard and produce (just so others can take it from them)?

     You are now being told that addiction is basically normal! You are now told that your sons and daughters are no different than anybody, that they actually need drugs and you should just accept it! It’s like, How dare you not love them the way they are! What’s wrong with you as a parent?! Of course, the people who generally spout this filth have never had children and have absolutely no clue that parents are 100% blameless (yes, even bad ones). It’s like when some idiot looks at a toddler having a tantrum and judges the parents thinking, OMG, if I had a kid, he would never act like that. K, let me know when you have one. Let me know how the zen meditation is going with your three year-old.

     Guess where we get the whole ‘blame the parents’ and ‘analyze our childhood’ model? Yup, you guessed it: clueless psychologists. They have infected you with this model, unless of course you are the patient and then you magically get to blame your parents too! There is a favorite shrink meme of a cartoon bully and the caption says, “The minute you meet some people, you know you will hate their mothers.” Sickening, I know, but these are the gems of wisdom the field of psychology has given us. What is it with social science? They just can’t help but fabricate stuff right out of thin air.

      So wake up and smell the coffee all of you POAs! All of that behavioral stuff like the pathological lying and the stealing of the jewelry and the ruining of Christmas et al, well, you really shouldn’t be too upset. That’s just circumstantial, but if you give them a ride everyday to the clinic to shoot up safely, much of that atrocious behavior should turn right around and everything should be fine. No need to live in gut-wrenching fear and heartache. No need to sleep with the phone. You see, all we really need is free drugs and a little compassion. If you just loved your sons and daughters a little bit more and shot them up twice a day, problem solved. And yes, for those of you who have no sense of humor, that was facetious. I’m bored, have nothing else to write about, and a good friend of mine sent me that article.

     Anyway, this is treatment in America today, folks. Embrace it. What is anybody wasting their time reading this shit for?

     PS Look, I know these ridiculous ideas come to fruition because they don’t know what else to do, but guess what? We could just offer junkies a solution. In other words, all of these state and federally funded programs and hospitals should be staffed with recovered addicts who can almost immediately gain the confidence of another addict and explain to them that there is a solution and that if they engage in this solution, drugs and alcohol will never be a problem ever again. 

     Somebody should also tell them that they don’t have a choice. Why do we give addicts the choice to not get better? Why don’t we tell them that they have to get better (and no, I don’t mean in the tyrannical way;) Sure they may still refuse, but nobody is even trying to suggest the moral necessity in getting better anymore. We are beginning to collectively believe that it is no longer wrong to drink or use, and that, my friends, may be the biggest travesty of all. 

     What does that say about our country that you are now the radical offensive dimwit by trying to live right and apply moral action to your recovery program, or just to your life as a non-addict? Today backward is forward and forward is backward, but hey, don’t get pissed at me. I’m just the messenger.

     Below is content that was added after the initial publication of the Step book, along with a few changes/additions to the 4th Step resentment inventory examples. The first paragraph and the inventory changes are now reflected as of Feb. 18, 2016. The last paragraph about codependency will be reflected shortly and I’ll let you know when that has occurred. At any rate, here are all of the additions so you have them. Whoops, sorry. What can I say? When you write, edit, proof, design and have acute baby brain, this is the kind of shit that happens ;)

     Addicts must absolutely suffer in sobriety to see of they are truly committed to getting better. This the true test of an addict’s fortitude and resolve, the true test of his guts and quality of character, the true test of his heart, mind and soul. This is the great spiritual test that propels us into freedom from addiction.

     It’s one thing to get sober, do a little work and fly around on a pink cloud for a while in our cushy treatment centers. But what happens when we come home and are faced with a little reality? What happens when we become human again like everybody else? What happens when the world smacks us square in the face and we are challenged personally, professionally and financially? What then? It’s no fun anymore, is it? Right, that’s called human life. Get used to it.

     Addicts are so hyper-focused on themselves and how they feel, so dependent on physical pleasure and feeling good 24/7 that we demand sobriety must also consist of this habitual comfort. We desperately try to find things to do to feel good and boost us back up. I was guilty of it too. Lit up from the spiritual catharsis after taking the first 7 Steps, I would meditate, write inventory and even help others with the sole intention of feeling better.

      Then one day the tools stopped giving me that buzz. Sure writing inventory is more healthy than speedballing, but it’s still part of the same old preoccupation with feeling good – the old addict self. It was all starting to pile up and I suddenly felt insecure and a little depressed. But soon I realized that a) it’s okay to suffer; I don’t have to freak out just because I’m a little uncomfortable now sometimes, and b) that this was the last threshold I had to cross to become recovered – suffering and continuing to push through. I had to suffer and take Steps anyway, just because it’s the right thing to do, just because it keeps me sane. I had to suffer and still give of myself. I had to suffer and still do things I don’t want to do but that I needed to do, that I’m responsible to do.

     By the way, if this sounds like a foreign language to addicts, I understand, but most people simply call this growing up.

     But this is the great spiritual test for us. This is what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. This is what separates the recovering from the recovered. This is what separates those of us who share a common problem (many) from those of us who share a common solution (few). Sorry, but most addicts and alcoholics succumb to fear. They would rather live a life of cowardice. They would rather blame everything and everyone except for themselves. They would rather believe they are victims and deserve to do anything it takes for them to feel better because no one suffers as they do. Right.

     So this is the test we must pass. Are we going to do this work only when we feel good, when it suits us, when the novelty of being freshly sober gives us a false and fleeting buzz, or are we going to do this work when it all wears off, when life smacks us back in the face, when we become human again and begin to suffer? Are we going to work, grow, love, serve and clean mom’s basement when we’re “in the mood” or are we going to push ourselves to grow regardless of how we feel? Recovery is not convenient, and like any religious tradition worth its salt, it’s not meant to be comfortable. It’s meant to stretch us. It’s meant to challenge us. It’s meant to push us to elevate the quality of our character and to become willing to take more action. Right action.

     Real recovery is not for the faint of heart. If we want fake recovery, we shouldn’t bother with applying the Steps thoroughly, rigorously and fearlessly for the rest of our lives. And we definitely shouldn’t bother with turning our will and our entire life over to God and all that that entails. If we want fake recovery, I’m sure there is a publicly funded methadone clinic and an open speaker meeting nearby (kidding, kidding… relax;).

     Anyway, please do your mom a favor and ask yourself if you are willing to suffer a little bit in sobriety and still do the right thing. If you are not, then you should let her know that you are planning to break her heart everyday for the rest of her (or more likely the rest of your) life.