The Pain is the Same for Everyone

We know that drug use or alcohol use is just a symptom of the real problem. I’ve worked with thousands of addicts over the last 30 years, and the one thing that amazes me about all of them is the remarkably deep amount of pain and hurt […]literally of themselves, as the addiction has ravaged them spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially and mentally. And, the mind-boggling fact of all of this is that it is the same pain for every addict, regardless of how much drugs they use or alcohol they drink, regardless of how often they do it and regardless of how long they have been doing it for…the pain is the same.

I will say it again…the mind-boggling fact of all of this is that it is the same pain for every addict, regardless of how much drugs they use or alcohol they drink, regardless of how often they do it and regardless of how long they been doing it for.

It’s not a fixed amount of time that makes you an addict, it’s a mindset.

I’ve seen people get heavily addicted in six months and hit bottom, others whose addiction finally caught up with them after years. Regardless of whether it grows slow or fast it’s growing, and the end result is always the same. The addict winds up a mere shell of themselves, a person who knows that they are trapped, being suffocated, that the life is being sucked out of them, and that their addiction has completely overtaken their minds and their bodies.

It’s as if they now live simply to feed the addiction. They know it’s not a good thing, and sometimes they even wish they could find the way out, but they are so addicted and have become so comfortable in this pattern of addiction, that it literally becomes the only thing that they really live for. The addiction itself has overtaken them, lied to them, confused them, twisted the truth, and made them believe that only in their addiction can they find comfort from the realities of the world. When in truth it’s the realities of the world where they would find comfort and love and it is the addiction which is killing them and isolating them.

So, the bottom line is the pain is the same for every addict.

The great news is there is also a cure and a recovery program available for everyone. No one will be able to say there wasn’t a way out. There is a way out for every addict…the only question is, “Are you willing to take it?”

To your Freedom,

Jack Alan Levine, Addiction Expert, Father, Author & Businessman