Another day has passed and another notch in the old belt is completed. So often I find in the blogs I read that people seem to become blindsided by the fact that the urges continue for so long after we quit. This in itself makes the journey seem harder then it really is. When we become surprised by the intensity of our addictions.
This is the time when we question ourselves and our resolve simply because we didn’t realize that the journey is indeed a bit longer then we thought. Many believe that getting through the first days is all there is to it. But as we live the life of the recovered addict, we realize that this is not the case. There’s more to the fight then we might have realized at first.
Personally, I listened to the words of the elders. It’s right there in so many of their blogs that the journey is indeed longer then one might at first expect. There is something to be said when it comes to the wisdom of those who have stayed on to help us newer quitters as we discover what quitting is really all about.
But the thing is that I took what they said to heart early on and for this reason, even though I do get the urges I have not been blindsided by them. Instead I understood that the continuing urges are a natural part of the journey. It’s the price we must pay in order to really become free and if you ask me, it’s a small price to pay.
Still, even with this knowledge, we have to learn how to work through those urges. It’s something that can’t really be taught. It just has to be lived. But each urge that is worked through adds another building block to our quits. It teaches our minds how to deal with our minds, knowing that one day it will be so much easier.
But being an addict means that the urges can pop up at any time in our futures. It means that we have to understand this so as not to lose our momentum. It’s the surprise urges that get us in the end. For this reason I know that it will be ingrained into my very being that I will not be blindsided. Not now or ever! I’ll be thankful for the days and weeks ahead where the urges start to fade and become mostly a thing of the past but will always be watchful for the next urge.
So hang in there my friends. We must face the realities of our quits together and stand together for one another. We must fight our fight to win. We must quell the addict within us but more then that, we must understand that addict. Once we understand the addict within; Once we know what makes him tick, this is when we’ve truly won not only the battle but the entire war!
So my inner addict and I will spend another wonderful day together, the addict learning what the rest of me wants while I learn the part of my brain that is the addict. I’ll spend a lot of time with my addicted brain but in the end I think that we’ll form a bond that goes beyond our addiction. We’ll form a bond of life and I know that in the end, even my internal addict strives for this same goal!
Now on to a new day of life!
