What are Addictions and How Do I Start to Address Them?

Addictions are any physical, mental, emotional or spiritual technique one use to suppress, substitute or generate a more pleasant short term emotion.

We didn’t have a choice about having these addictions as children but we do have a responsibility to wake up to them and stop doing more harm. Addictions always require something from another or the environment and always does damage. Most of us have about 1000 addictions but as you start to address a dozen of so of the big ones, you will learn the process of working through them, and removing the rest of them will get easier.

How do you know if you have an addiction? Anytime you feel impatient, irritable, frustrated, angry, and rage, you are reacting from not getting an addiction met. Yes this is a very challenging perspective.

I had to do serious reflection and engage my intuition, to convince myself that my addictions are harmful in order to build courage to work on them. Once I saw how much my children’s suffering is caused by my addictions, I became fixated to address, them no matter how long it takes, and how painful it gets in the meantime.

When an addiction is removed, I experience anger and I have to allow myself to safely go through the process. I had to learn the difference between owning and projecting anger. I had to convince myself that the addiction had to stop, and this takes me to sadness and sometimes even suicidal thoughts. I had to work on my addiction for power for years before I was willing to let it go but I learned a lot in the process. I see now why addictions work require in believing in something bigger than myself in order to get though it.

The process of confronting addictions has made me much closer to God. I had always believe that God existed, but now God is Someone I engage moment to moment, as that is the only way I can get through this process. Of course, now I find happiness and truth from God that fills me with hope and faith.

By engaging the addiction process, I have discovered parts of my real self that was hidden by the addictions (and facades), I like the real me and am engaging in experiment to find ways to express my true self in fulfilling ways.

Love,

Dr Dharm