Indomitable is defined as, “impossible to subdue or defeat.” As important as it might be to apply this description to one’s determination to overcome addiction, it is first important to recognize the ways in which our addictions were, in themselves, indomitable . . .
For centuries it has been noted that one of the foundations of human unhappiness is the inevitability of change. One of the best uses for addictive behaviors is that they can stand to iron out the emotional disarray that these changes seem to produce . . .
Addictions can serve many purposes, but one of the most important is to create—or usually wrest—a sense of comfort in the present moment . . .
At root, participation in our addictions as well as in our recovery is work in the invisible. The payoff of addiction is internal, emotional, and in all ways, not part of the material world. While that to which we are addicted is usually visible—drugs, money, another person—the underlying rewards of these pursuits are not . . .
The investment in either our addictions or our recoveries is, ultimately, an investment in attaining a sense of well-being. Furthermore, successful addiction recovery must be viewed as the functional pursuit of what was pursued, dysfunctionally, through our addictions . . .
Our addictions attempt to serve many important emotional purposes. One of these is footing. Often our addictions serve to create an emotional footing when we have trouble finding this equanimity without them . . .
One of the most useful ways of looking at the underlying motivations that drive addiction is as an attempt at mind control. When we pursue a substance or behavior to the point that it becomes an addiction, we are really attempting to create and maintain a mind-set—an experience of the mind—that is soothing, comfortable, and calm . . .
Making changes in life always requires diligence, consistency, and follow-through. There is not a magic formula that can create the types of internal changes that will make recovery successful, there is only hard work . . .
Our addictions serve very important purposes. They are not undisciplined frivolous indulgences nor are they simply the result of automatic reactions to neural demands or genetic unfolding. Our addictions establish themselves because they act as anchors . . .
There are so many ways in which the use (and misuse) of our mind influences our experience of life. At their core, our addictions are used as short-cuts to creating a mental state that feels comfortable, or at the very least, distracts us from how uncomfortable we really are . . .