5 Hard Truths About Addiction You Need to Hear

It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Addiction Means You Can’t Handle The Truth

In the movie A Few Good Men, the character Colonel Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) tells a military courtroom, “you can’t handle the truth“. He is referring to harsh realities that most people prefer not to see or are unable to recognize. We humans have a tremendous capacity for hiding from the reality of our situation. This is particularly obvious when it comes to things like addiction where the brain becomes hijacked by distorted thinking.

If we are serious about breaking free of addiction, we need to get better at handling the truth. If we don’t, our lives will become increasingly difficult. Unfortunately, it is often the pain of our life trajectory, assuming it doesn’t kill us first, that eventually forces us to re-evaluate our conception of the world (this is commonly referred to as hitting rock bottom). But, the sooner we can face the hard truths of addiction, the less painful this turning point will be.

Here at five hard truths that need to be considered:

Our Situation is Worse Than We Imagine

There is nothing more confining than the prison we don’t know we are in.

William Shakespeare

Addiction and denial go hand-in-hand. This means we are ill-equipped to judge the severity of our situation. The saddest part of all is that our life has been shit for so long, we just view it as normal. We accept the unacceptable, and this just further drives the addictive behaviour.

One of the things substance abuse destroys is our dreams and vision (or ideas about what is possible), and this means we become willing to put up with a miserable existence. We become satisfied with crumbs of happiness. This makes it impossible to see how small our life has become. One of the first hard truths we need to recognize is that we deserve better.

Total Abstinence is the Best Option

If you regularly shoot yourself in the foot then doing this a bit less might improve the situation, but it wouldn’t be a solution. Not only is trying to moderate our drug usage mostly ineffective as a solution, it is also ultimately much harder to do. It means being caught up in a never-ending battle between our willpower and craving. This is exhausting, and it means we can’t get on with our lives.

Total abstinence brings to an end the inner battle between drinking/using and not drinking/using. It means that we can redirect the energies that were wasted in this conflict to things that can make us happier.

I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

John Lennon – Just Gimmie Some Truth

Our Thinking is Likely to be Distorted

The fact that we are usually closely identified with our thinking means that any questioning of it can feel like a personal attack. This failure to recognize how our thoughts are keeping us prisoner is arguably the most common reason people fail to recover from addiction. Cognitive biases such as; illusion of control, denial, status quo bias, hyperbolic discounting (favoring small immediate rewards over larger long term rewards) and confirmation bias are all associated with the addicted brain. This means that we cannot really trust our thinking while we are still under the spell of alcohol or other drugs.

Going It Alone Can Just Be Too Difficult

We value our independence and take pride in being able to deal with our own problems without outside interference. This desire for autonomy is admirable, but it can also be highly unrealistic. The reality is that people who are successful at challenging projects (and escaping an addiction is an incredibly challenging project) usually do so as part of a team. Together we are stronger, and if we are serious about turning our life around, we need to be willing to accept any help that will allow us to achieve our goal.

As we mentioned above, distorted thinking is very much part of the trap we find ourselves in. Thinking we can go it alone is an example of this. If it were true, we would have escaped the addictive behaviour long ago.

Just Stopping the Substance Abuse Is Unlikely to be Enough

The human being cannot live in a condition of emptiness for very long: if he is not growing toward something, he does not merely stagnate; the pent-up potentialities turn into morbidity and despair, and eventually into destructive activities.

Rollo May

The term “dry drunk” is used to describe somebody who has managed to stop the substance abuse but their behaviour continues to be similar as if they were in the midst of addiction. Symptoms of this can include; emotional instability, poor judgement, anger issues, depression, anxiety, and engaging in new addictive behaviors (e.g. sex and porn addiction, work addiction, or exercise addiction).

For real recovery to occur, it is vital to deal with the underlying roots of the addictive behaviour. It is this that will lead to a life where there is no need for mind-altering drugs because we are already happy and at peace. This is why an addiction treatment program is necessary because a detox usually isn’t enough.

Here at Hope Rehab Thailand we are committed to supporting clients as they come to terms with the reality of their situation. Contact us now to find out more about what we can offer.