{"id":254,"date":"2015-08-13T09:41:23","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T14:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catholicinrecovery.com\/?p=254"},"modified":"2020-10-28T16:46:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T21:46:35","slug":"cycle-of-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catholicinrecovery.com\/cycle-of-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Life Over Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"14177186780_0ed9386267_k\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever been baffled by the choice of a person you love to resort back to the source of their pain to relieve their pain?<\/p>\n

Have you ever found yourself in a spot where you couldn\u2019t delineate the difference between your problem and your solution?<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019ve experienced this cycle of addiction[1]<\/a> first or second hand, you\u2019ve likely also gotten to know the helplessness that accompanies it and the resulting incomprehensible demoralization that follows.<\/p>\n

For several years of my life I feel that it would have been completely appropriate and reasonable to greet those who loved me with, \u201cHi, I\u2019m Scott, the one who has been puzzling you!\u201d<\/p>\n

I drank or used drugs nearly every day, waking up the next morning with an intense disgust for what I had done and an even greater doom that clouded my immediate future. Every day was going to be the day that I would will myself to virtue, mustering the courage to keep from letting my vice get the best of me. Unfortunately, either my own will was not enough or I forgot to change the self-directing feature of my car, but I always found myself at the liquor store at the end of my work shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the heck am I doing?\u201d I would ask myself, as I showed no hesitation mixing myself a drink in the liquor store parking lot. I was a slave to the object of my addiction.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you have asked yourself the same question while indulging in whatever it is that keeps you from being free. You may have even found yourself engaging in an inner-dialogue that includes:<\/p>\n