When listening to the stories of recovered addicts, a lot of similarities can be found with each of them. Although everyone undergoes their own unique experience, there are often patterns woven within the stories that we can identify and learn from.
One repeated pattern Bill and George highlighted is that many addicts are dealing with a loss of their dreams. George explains:
“That crushing blow that the dream you had as a little kid isn’t going to happen. So we get some applause from a different direction and it comes out of a bottle or a pill that is instantaneous and it works.”
Mourning is often approached from the context of grieving the loss of a person. We rarely hear about the mourning of a lost dream. If your life’s goal is shattered, you should take time to acknowledge and deal with that loss. Otherwise one of the coping mechanisms may be to abuse drugs or alcohol.
“I think a lot of the addictive process is a grieving process.” – George
We have to be sad for things that we’ve lost, and for the things that never came to be. Often we have dreams from a young age that are not fulfilled. We think we have a plan for our life, but God has something else in store.
No one ever plans to be an addict, but when it happens we need to realize that our plans and our dreams have failed. We aren’t in control and we need to give our lives to our God who is. We need to trust His plan and trust that His goal for our life is the best possible goal.
