The above caption is just one of an infinite number of excuses, none of which, like so-called “triggers,” have anything to do with reality. Asserting that your “disease” made you steal your grandmother’s Oxycontin is the same thing as saying a cardboard box triggered you to go drink. See “Excuses of an Addict” for a good laugh.

     That said, to go from a physically sober nightmare to a recovered person, the addict must, to put it lightly, deal with their shit. The physically sober addict is not only a child, but is also a ticking time bomb. He or she is filled to the brim with emotional and spiritual poison, having racked up a lifetime of resentment, fear and sexual misconduct. As well, patterns and behaviors such as dishonesty, manipulation and selfishness that destroy relationships and tear hearts apart have essentially become hard-wired in the addict or alcoholic.

     So does anybody think these things are just going to magically disappear when the addict gets sober? Moreover, for anyone who thinks any kind of therapeutic program that simply complements suboxone or methadone use will lead to anything but disaster is sorely mistaken. In fact, addicts on methadone are actively growing sicker on every level. All of them WILL relapse, and when they do, the run they go on will be epic, if not end their lives, as we are dealing with a coiled spring. Good solution. Oh, and the idiotic progressives in government actually have to audacity to make taxpayers subsidize methadone clinics. Truly, we live in a fallen world.

     Dealing with our shit is to identify and understand the mountain of both inner and outer work that lies before us. A written inventory, if done fearlessly and thoroughly will encompass resentments, fears and sexual misconduct that goes back to the earliest of childhood memories. We must then peel back layer upon layer of bullshit to find the truth about how we ourselves birthed these resentments and fears. Though we may pull our hair out and scream that we were the victims of some event, somewhere in the ether of truth is our culpability. It is our own self-seeking, selfishness, dishonesty and fear that caused our resentments. And if this stuff isn’t expelled via shining the light of truth and personal responsibility on them, they will destroy us as effectively as drugs themselves. Resentment and fear are emotional and spiritual poisons.

     Of course, writing about three to five thousand answers on how we caused our own anger and resentment is just the icing on the cake. We have left a behind us a wake of destruction – relationships, bridges, debts, personal failure and unfinished business of all sorts. We are stunted, and haven’t progressed and matured as we should have… and thus the amends and rigorous work begins. Amends, by the way, to our family and friends, especially our parents, never ends. The last thing they need is some rehearsed soliloquy of remorse. I’m quite sure they’ve had enough of us talking and blabbing on and on and on. How about we shut up and let them do the talking at their own convenience. I’m sure they might have a few words for us at some point.

     What they want is for us to change, to grow up, to act like a decent, kind, respectful, honest and helpful human beings day after day, month after month, and year after year. And they should. After walking backwards for so long, we certainly have a tremendous amount to give back. Addicts on methadone or suboxone are going to be absolutely useless to anybody. And recovery is synonymous with being useful. I personally had to work 24/7 to recover. It was imperative that I try to repair relationships and broken hearts, get out of debt, finish school, work my ass off, take other addicts through the Big Book, run groups, write, educate, etc. etc. etc.

     Furthermore, we have a plethora of unfinished busisness – school, jobs, the acquisition of skill sets, knowledge and life wisdom have all taken a serious hit. The sober addict must work and progress constantly, running full speed ahead and never looking back. Fuck ten years of therapy and being coddled like the mellenials of today who are taught they never should have to feel discomfort or suffer rejection of any kind. Forget this nanny state nonsense. If you want your addict to act like a whiny little child who expects everything for free with the least effort possible, then yeah, keep giving them participation trophies and sobriety chips.

     Recovery = dealing with your shit.

     Trust me, the worst thing you could possibly tell an addict is that his addiction has nothing to do with the selfishness ingrained in his personality or his willingness to do the wrong thing to others (and subsequent indifference). This MUST be considered a real part of the problem. 

     If all we do is tell addicts they have an innate, involuntary disease and that all associated behaviors are but symptoms, they will happily excuse themselves of any and all accountability when it comes to the wrongs they have committed, and if we do this, we are perpetuating the very sickness which haunts them and causes pain to so many. 

     By explaining (excusing) all aspects of addiction to brain chemistry (a brain which, by the way, we destroyed ourselves, as the process of losing choice is very much a choice) we are simply biding time until the next relapse, allowing addicts to immaturely glorify the SELF while continuing to hurt people. I truly doubt you are looking forward to more of the same.

     Clearly, the progressive and morally relative implications and assumptions made by the modern disease model are ruining treatment in America and they are pushing addicts to repel all sense of moral responsibility and any connection to God as radical and inappropriate. Sorry, folks, but that’s what you get when you allow the pendulum to swing this far towards collectivism and cultural Marxism, and away from freedom and personal responsibility.