What is Your Addiction?

I saw Ruben, the American Idol Winner of 2003 on TV the other day and he was as overweight as he has ever been. Yet, on the show The Biggest Loser he admitted that he had Type 2 diabetes, so I wondered why is it so hard to lose weight if your health depends on it? When I asked my wife this question, she only replied, "Well, eating may be an addiction to him. You do not know what's going on in his life." Yes, that makes sense. Fact of the matter is that we all have our own uphill struggle, and in the end make the choices that somehow work for us. What is your addiction?

I am reminded of the psychologist Gabor Mate, the author of the book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, in which he complained that even though he is helping drug addicts professionally to the best of his abilities, he himself has a shopping addiction that he can't beat. Reading the heart-wrenching stories of his patients, I was wondering whether his craving for shopping expensive classical CDs is nothing but an outlet of the stress and tension that his job entails. Stuck energy needs an outlet, that is why some of us sometimes run into imaginary walls. 

How can we blame Ruben for what he goes through? Take one look at him and you see that he was born with a bigger built. In fact, that physical presence made him so attractive to his fans. When he won American Idol, he looked like a big adorable teddy bear. What must it feel like to be the center of projections of millions? Can you imagine stepping nearly naked in front of TV viewers, as he did in the show Biggest Loser? Life simply happens, and we make the best choices that seem available to us. Perhaps some addictions are never meant to be put aside as long as we are conquering our life mission. Or perhaps it is our mission to drop everything and focus on the energy balance within first. Who can say but you.