WOW!!!! Things are great on this side of addiction. I love it. Not everything is that easy in recovery but it’s sure enjoyable. I love the peace and calm of not having to bust up a pill or break out a line just to get the day started. Even though I don’t sleep great, it’s nice to not have to feel like I have to take a boat load of nerve or sleeping pills just to rest.

Yes, there is something inside me that says yes, I would like to be high right now. And it might not be so bad if those highs didn’t come with consequences. But consequences are exactly what come with using and abusing drugs, LOTS and LOTS of consequences!

The cravings, while after so long they become less intense and less frequent and even though I no longer feed them, they are still present. It’s getting easier to deal with them now, however, the people? Now that’s a different story.

I see it every day. Almost everywhere I go. These folks hiding behind their blind knowledge of what we as addicts go through. Oh, trust me you do have a hint of what we go through but on such a tiny scale it’s almost imaginary. Yes, I’m talking to you, the one with the cup of coffee in your hand, knowing that as soon as you get that one finished you’re going to drink another.

I’m talking to you, the one sitting there smoking the cigarette already thinking about your next one. I’m also talking to those of you who have to record your favorite shows so you can watch them later because you just can’t miss it, no matter what. And I’m talking to those of you who are wanting to diet, and maybe even trying really hard to lose a few pounds but you just can’t stop drinking that soda or eating those delicious cookies. Oh, and one more. I’m definitely talking to all of you who shame those who gossip about each other but you can’t keep your mouth shut yourself.

Almost, if not every single one of us has an addiction to something. In some cases, many of us have an addiction to many things. Yet many often judge or condemn and look down on the people who have addictions just as they, themselves do. Lots of you may choose to hide your own addictions because of the stigma that you and good folks just like you have placed on it through the years.

I know and understand some addictions are far worse than others. But addictions, they still are. So if you really want to help those who are still suffering and trying so hard to get or stay clean then you have got to take your head out of the clouds and look around at just how your own, seemingly concealed addictions might be affecting you, your judgments and even those around you. Tell me you don’t have an addiction to something and I’ll tell you a story about Pinocchio.

I hear it said so much that it’s a choice, and it is. But not all choices are that easy to make. On top of that sometimes people simply make the mistake of making the wrong choice. I hear it said that all anyone needs is Jesus and I do believe we all need Him. But watch this… I know many devoted Christian folks who have Christ in their lives, always. But they still get cancer and diabetes.

They still die from heart attacks and dementia. I know lots and lots of good Christian folks who are overweight like myself, just begging for health issues to come their way, yet still they chance everything just for another less than healthy meal. I’m a Christian; I do have Christ with me always. But I still crave a pill from time to time. But what I have gained along with eternal life is knowledge, lots and lots of knowledge, about my faith, my addiction and the world in which we addicts live.

So many of you think we are bad people, lost causes not worthy of your time or effort. Or you think addiction issues are not your problem and you think you should just sit back and eat your donuts, drink your coffee and degrade anyone whose name comes to the end of your tongue. Try this. Try lifting them up for a real change.

There has been research and experiments done, trying to figure out just how addiction works and what it does to the brain, and the knowledge gained is continuously expanded.

One of the best experiments that I’ve heard of includes the study of drugs and mice. This study has been proven many times to confirm consistency. And just maybe if you read the following you will have a better understanding of the addicts in your community, in your businesses, and even in your own homes. And who knows, maybe it will give you a better understanding about yourselves. And this experiment can be done at home, if you’ve got the drugs to do it and you need visual proof.

Take a mouse; make two openings for it to run into once you release it. Make one of them dark and light up the other. So now you have a dark hole, a lighted hole and a little mouse. One of God’s creatures, I might add. Turn it loose and see which hole it runs into. It will go to that dark hole every time.

That’s the way, through millions and millions of years of evolution that the mouse’s brain has been programmed so it can escape its predators. Now take that same mouse and release it and force it into the lighted hole. Once there give it meth, cocaine or opiates. Do this once or twice. Then in a day or two take that mouse and release it once again, letting it choose which hole to escape too. Now, every time out, that little mouse will run to the lighted hole.

Why? Because the chemicals in those drugs have just altered the programmed, evolutionary behavior in that mouse’s brain; which as a result completely altered the thinking and behavior characteristics after just one or two doses in the little mouse. So now that mouse thinks differently then the other mice, causing it to automatically run towards the dangers in the light. And it will take time for that tiny animal to ever think normally again.

This doesn’t make that mouse a bad animal deserving to be thrown aside or shunned. Yes, those using drugs do some sketchy things, including those who think they are secretly hiding their own drug use. But we shouldn’t be cast aside as devils or rejects or worthless and abandoned. That’s not right. And believe it or not, it sure isn’t Christian. Yes the laws need to be upheld. But so do those folks who are putting forth the effort to change their negative old ways while at the same time dealing with the stigma of this disease.

Just like the mouse in the experiment, those of us who have gotten hooked on drugs, our minds have been reprogrammed to think differently.

We my never think as some of you do. But that doesn’t make us bad people. Have we done bad things in association with drugs? Most likely!!! But hate, abandonment, and continued shame from those of you who hide behind your own addictions and delusional faith. Come on! One day it will be your turn at a down time in your own life, or in the life of your child, parent of friend.

Do you think you want others to shun you because you always run to the lighted hole, like the little mouse for your cookies, coffee, TV shows or to engage in the latest gossip or something far worse?

I can talk about all this because I live it. I write about it because of the knowledge gained from years of experience. And I do it because I’ll do whatever it takes to at least attempt to help those fighting their way through addiction. Christ has given me great ability to do what I now do. May God richly bless each of you in your own lives and struggles.

An addict, a child of God, a Christian,

Phillip Lee