A Person Addicted is a Person in Conflict
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A Person Addicted is a Person in Conflict
A Person Addicted is a Person in Conflict
The person in the grip of dependency on an addictive substance is a person in conflict. Their personality has split into two antagonistic camps. There is the old, original person, the person they used to be before addictive substances became a priority in their lives. And there is the more recent person, the addict, who lives in the person’s mind/body like a parasite, sucking up more and more resources, and driving the person toward a premature death.
The inner struggle between these two personalities inhabiting the same person is the central psychological reality of life as an addict. So typical is this inner split that “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is hands down the favourite modern metaphor for the condition.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde was the addict who committed unspeakable crimes while under the influence. Dr. Jekyll was the rational physician, a pillar of the community, always helping and doing good. The great hair-raising thrill of the story to this day is the audience’s gradual dawning that they were in fact one and the same person.
From the LifeRing book ‘Empowering Your Sober Self’ by Martin Nicolaus, available from
The person in the grip of dependency on an addictive substance is a person in conflict. Their personality has split into two antagonistic camps. There is the old, original person, the person they used to be before addictive substances became a priority in their lives. And there is the more recent person, the addict, who lives in the person’s mind/body like a parasite, sucking up more and more resources, and driving the person toward a premature death.
The inner struggle between these two personalities inhabiting the same person is the central psychological reality of life as an addict. So typical is this inner split that “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is hands down the favourite modern metaphor for the condition.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde was the addict who committed unspeakable crimes while under the influence. Dr. Jekyll was the rational physician, a pillar of the community, always helping and doing good. The great hair-raising thrill of the story to this day is the audience’s gradual dawning that they were in fact one and the same person.
From the LifeRing book ‘Empowering Your Sober Self’ by Martin Nicolaus, available from
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Yes. I came to see it in me as a divided self - a man who was at odds, at war with, against himself.in my choices to keep picking up the bottle. I wanted to be whole, to discover self trust, calm, peace etc. Sobriety brought me into a relationship with myself for the first time.
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Yes without doubt a constant conflict in your head, absolutely exhausting and detrimental to everything in full blown addiction. It crawls over you like a skin eating bug taking more and more until there is nothing left except a shell of your former self.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for posting.
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I am a classic 'Jekyll and Hyde' alcoholic. When I crossed that line into alcoholism, I started doing very uncharacteristic things like losing my temper after too much to drink. Pathological lying about everything. Just being reckless. Some people who knew me before the booze became a problem were quite concerned/surprised with my change in personality.
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From the LifeRing book ‘Empowering Your Sober Self’ by Martin Nicolaus, available from
www.lifering.org
fixed that for you, 2christy. how are you doing?
www.lifering.org
fixed that for you, 2christy. how are you doing?
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