To the Editor,
It’s staggering, how many kinds of addiction exist.
It would be too easy if it was just drugs, booze and cigarettes.
The hardest part of breaking a habit is wanting to break it.
We get addicted for a reason. Often, perhaps too often, things that start out as just a normal part of our life at some point cross the line and morph into an obsessive, compulsive, out of control thing.
It’s the euphoria we’re chasing, the high that makes everything else eventually fade off to a senseless oblivion.
The thing about addiction is, it never ends well. The sad truth is that eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high, stops feeling good, then starts to incapacitate and injure us and our loved ones.
Still, there is a saying that we don’t kick the habit until we hit rock bottom. But how do we know when we are there? Where is rock bottom anyway? Because no matter how badly a thing is hurting us, sometimes, letting it go hurts even worse.
Someone told me once things can always get worse no matter how down you are, there is always a deeper pit with its attached equally miserable and pathetic despair.
Why not simply come to the bare faced conclusion that it is time to end the cycle of addiction now. To shake off the demons and realize we have a God-like gift… our free will. After all, we were never meant to be dependent and controlled like that. Get free, stay free, be free.
Joe van Galen,
Port Alberni