We all know insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Not only do we create chaos, but delusion and wishful thinking become habitual.

Minimizing, denial, blaming, resentment, self pity, deflecting, are all symptoms of addiction.

Many of us tend to focus on how much someones using, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t worry about what substances you may or may not be using. What you’re actually using has little to do with your problem.

Your problem lies in how you’re thinking and feeling and behaving.

Self-Reliance (relying on self) is another symptom of addiction.

I remember the negotiation stage of my addiction. I was going to figure this problem out on my own. I would only drink on weekends, or I would only have one drink, or I would only drink on special occasions.

TIP: If you reward special occasions with using there might be a problem.

Thing is drinking always took me to people and places I didn’t want to go. So I found the solution. Pot! I could drink and then before I purchased another illegal substance, if I got the timing just right, I’d smoke a joint and crawl into bed. Tada! Success, at least in my mind.

See I didn’t want to give up drinking and I didn’t want to hurt my family.

Tip: If you need one substance to stop another, you might have a problem.

Tip: If your idea of a successful outing is simply making it home, you might have a problem.

Of course in order to drink and use I did hurt my family, so now I had a bigger problem. It certainly wasn’t the boozes fault my life was going to hell in a hand basket, so guess who got the blame?

You got it.

Everyone but me was the problem and using was the solution.

So you can imagine how this story goes.

You might even be living it yourself.

My marriage ended. I damaged my kids. I lost my job. I was evicted from my home and…….

I was still going to figure it out myself.

Of course I`d never heard the term Self-Reliant and Delusional before. And even if I did, I wouldn’t have believed it. I was smug and unteachable and just to give you a snapshot, pretty arrogant too.

My thinker was broken, only I didn’t know it.

Why is it we assign reasoning to folks who have clearly lost theirs?

Addiction, a game the whole family can play.