What is addiction?

Addiction is a state of being that impacts many dimensions of one’s life.  Addiction impacts us physically and non-physically.  It also impacts our relationship with others.

Addiction can impact us physically.  Repeated use of a substance can harm body tissue. Different substances impact the physical body differently.

Addiction impacts the way we do what we do non-physically.  It impacts the way we form how we manage ourselves when filling our life needs.  

Addiction impacts our relationships.  It impacts the way we relate to other people and use places and things.

Addiction is a state of being in which the way we do what we do gets out of balance.  Ownership of personal functioning gets displaced.  The placement of ownership of functioning outside where it resides repeats and gets stuck in a pattern that causes harm to the self or others.  The substance becomes the solution for filling the emptiness caused by conflict within one’s self or with others.

In the About Addiction section of this website, tools are provided to observe how and where we place ownership of personal functioning that keeps us stuck in patterns of behavior that cause harm to the self or others.

The following two articles provide information about how we can find our way through the recovery process.  The articles are:

Finding Our Way Through Difficulty

Finding Our Way Through Difficulty

The Twelve Steps, Traditions, and Concepts of Recovery:  AA and Al-Anon:  An Overview

Overview Twelve Steps Traditions Concepts of Recovery