Addiction and Recovery

Mike Hupfer introduces Addiction and Recovery. Presented below is some great information and resources for help overcoming addiction. Addictions come in many shapes and sizes. The information presented is recommended for everybody and may provide  an illuminating window into our psyche. 

Addiction and Recovery

Mike Hupfer presents traitors. As part of Detox Sector, Addiction and Recovery provides information and resources for help overcoming addiction. “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”  – William Shakespeare

The relationship that we have with ourselves, parallels the relationships we have with another.

Think about this for a moment: the relationship that we have with ourselves parallels the relationship we have with another. Let me explain what I mean. When I was drinking to numb my pain, I had no idea what I was feeling inside. I shut everyone out, even those who genuinely cared about me. Without thinking how my actions were hurting my loved ones, I continued my path of destruction.

After I sobered up, and received treatment, I learned that most of my problems were mine alone, and I needed to own it, and take responsibility for the choices I made later in life. After evaluating my Family Playbook, I wanted to make amends for the damage I was responsible for, and for how my addiction harmed others.

When I no longer relied on alcohol as a coping tool, I realized that I liked myself sober. I am becoming a better person, and this is the start of my journey to heal the wounds for myself and others, and I have mostly made amends to those I hurt.

For the most part, when we like who we are as a person, we are kinder to those around us, especially to those close to us. I learned that by better understanding my own Family Playbook, and how those rules influenced me, I realized that I am in control, and can decide how to live my life. Finally, to conclude this chapter, please don’t let regret rule you. This has been challenging to me. I have a lot of regrets in my life, and I wish I could go back in time, and make a tweak. Well, maybe more than a tweak.

Try to keep in mind that every experience we go through will make us who we are today, and the not so pleasant experiences, will strengthen us, and make us more resilient. Without the “hard knocks,” would we be who we are now?

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”  – William Shakespeare

Change can be terrifying. At least, it was for me. Looking at ourselves can be an extremely difficult experience. When I was heavy into my addiction, I didn’t care much about myself, and didn’t give much thought to how I was treating others. Pretty much all I cared about was feeding my addiction, and getting wasted.

When I did manage to pull through, I recognized that fear had been holding me back. Fear had been causing me to doubt myself, and in my own abilities to help myself. When I faced this fear of change, it unfettered me of the chains of addiction, allowing me entry into a new phase of my life. For now, the shackles are undone.

Addiction and Recovery

Mike Hupfer presents friends and family. As part of Detox Sector, Addiction and Recovery provides information and resources for help overcoming addiction. I feel pain, not for the loss of flavorless friends, who have long come and gone, but the genuine friends still with me, in heart and spirit, and in person. The genuine people in my life have accepted me. In years past, I occasionally dumped on these genuine friends, sometimes deliberately, and other times, I was just being a knuckle head, and lacked insight.

I spent years hanging out with flavorless friends drinking, smoking, bar-hopping, attending parties and just random nothingness. Looking back, what a waste of time. One flavorless friend didn’t even know my first name, and this was after hanging out for years. I didn’t discover this until after I attended his milestone birthday party, and in our drunken conversation, he asked me my name. This was after 5 years! I felt like an idiot. In all those years, he just called me “hangover."

We may think that our friends will always be our friends. I get it. Of course, for some people, this may be the case. That wasn’t the case for me at all. Not even close. I am fortunate that a couple of genuine friends are still with me after the years of incremental neglect. Some of the time, I was not a very good friend. I prioritized flavorless friends, over my real friends for the sake of foolishness, and hedonism.I paid the fool's price, and have the pointy dunce hat to prove it.

So, take time, and do an inventory of your friends, and prioritize your genuine friends, over the social media type friends. As we move down life’s bumpy road, our most important friend, and confidant, will be our life partner, you know, the one we will share our home. Give this person exclusive stage pass to you. This is this person who is, and will be, your very best friend. Treat them like royalty, with Grey Poupon, of course.

The family part is a bit more tricky. I suggest breaking down the “family” into individual parts; more specifically, to each individual person within the family. Individuals in the family can be a source of sparks, including good and bad jolts, and everything else in between. The spark may be ignited by one or more individuals in the family, or every individual in the family. What we really have is a family of individuals, and individuals make mistakes. Sometimes, the mistakes may be repeated over and over, accidentally, or otherwise.

As the years flow like a raging river, individuals in the family change. Of course, we all change one way or another, whether we want to change, or not. Change can be viewed as positive, or negative, but more likely, change will fall somewhere in the continuum of good and bad. At many points in our life, individuals within our family will ignite some emotional event, and it's likely the emotional event, or spark, will fall somewhere between pleasure and pain, good and bad.

Just like reviewing our friends list and Family Playbook, take time to review our own family to determine our direction in the family, or the level of participation in functions, events, and life stages. The direction and participation part is entirely our choice, and subject to change without notice. Remember: the only person in the family, and in life, we can control is us.