I think until an addict heals the wounds of their past they are gonna bleed. They will attempt to bandage that bleeding with alcohol, drugs, food, work, porn. But eventually it will all ooze through and stain their lives. They first must want to heal then they must find the strength to open the wounds, stick their hands inside and pull out the core of the pain that is holding them prisoner to their past memories and make peace with them.
The addict that was in my life went to rehab numerous times in his life probably near 8 -10 times, sat in thousands of meetings, talked to people in the program for hundreds of minutes if not thousands on the phone. Saw numerous counselors and therapists……………………………..yet NEVER address the real issue of his past that holds him prisoner with his addiction. And I believe because of that he is and probably always will be a chronic relapser.
For him addiction lives in the same part of his brain that tells him to breath, it’s his life line.
It took me years and years to understand addiction and I’m still learning. One of the things I learned best was….it’s not that some addicts have the will power and some don’t, it’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.