Thanks so much.
I wish folks could be convinced, but the decision and drive really do have to come from within. I spent twenty years trying to change the outcome for my brother and mother, yielding nothing but a thousand wasted hours. And toward the end, I slid dangerously in the same direction, with my path up to me alone.
I watch some posters here go round and round and round on the same dark, worn path, and my heart hopes it someday sinks in that nothing changes as long as nothing changes, and it's just so much better on this side.
There is a book by Allan Carr about quitting cigarettes (which I finally tackled a year and a half ago) that is so on point. He says that the the relief from satisfying a craving - e.g. that aahhh feeling with the first drink / smoke of the day - is the exact same feeling one has all the time after kicking the habit. Sit with that.. People fear a chronic state of craving, but in reality it's a chronic state of not-craving. No doubt, there is a big mountain to climb in between, but two little feet can climb right over it one day at a time.
Wishing all of you peace and health and hope.