Addiction: Highway to Hell

I once met someone who was abused as a child by his father and he described how his father exposed himself and masturbated in front of him you could literally see how his eyes drifted into a trance. It appeared as if he was literally unconscious as he abused his son.

 Even though all addictions seem so different, from gambling to sex and substance abuse, as you approach the high the mind turns on autopilot in all cases. You feel the surge of energy, the increased heart beat, the surge of blood into your brain, followed by the feeling of something taking over and you are suddenly hooked: 'Escape from Freedom' as Erich Fromm put this phenomenon so succinctly, take a few steps in the wrong direction and you are on the highway to hell.

If you are on the highway to hell, you still always can turn your car around. I don't believe that there is a point of no return. If you dig a hole for yourself you can dig yourself out of it as well; only you have to know what you are fighting for. Kerry Spackman in his book 'The Winner's Bible' described the remarkable turn- around of one of his clients who managed to beat a highly addictive chemical substance the moment she realized that without a change in her life she would loose her son. She put a photo up of him and quit - that's it! Her story may be an outlier success story, but the remedy for all who travel on the highway to life is the same: the opposite direction on this highway is to say 'yes to life', even though it hurts a lot in the beginning. Saying 'yes to life' means taking ownership of decisions instead of escaping.