Part 1 | The Mindset

The Addiction Journey

Let me please first start by saying to those who are actually hear seeking help and concern for a loved one, thank you for taking the time to read this article. It means the world to me that you found my blog and I hope you find value in something here today! Yes, I know I am going to get a lot of slack for this article, but I honestly don’t care anymore! I am not here for those who don’t want to believe in change, I am here for those who NEED to believe change is possible! And not just Change but transformational change! Let me just add that I have “Been there done that” on both sides of the spectrum, so I come from a place of hard love, but TRUTH! Besides you don’t have to read this article, there are others out there that will patronize you with their “medicine, degrees, and book smarts”! That is no me! I am an honest individual who writes based on personal experience and through trial and error of life’s messy influences, I have overcome many obstacles. Some things include, sexual, physical, and mental abuse, homelessness, jail, in and out of shelters, and even went into hiding from my attacker which led to my addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Not everyone will resonate with me or my concept and that’s okay. I am used to people not understanding me. (Giggles) Maybe you understand the process that most addicts go through. Maybe you have a friend, family member, or loved one who is fighting an addiction right now. Or maybe you lost someone to substance abuse due to an addiction. Let me first say I am sorry for you lose. I have lost many and I am certain I will lose many more to the illness. But there is hope for change! My mission is that through my own experience I can share my journey and it will cause a ripple effect of that change. A change on how we look at addition so that we can treat it differently! We need to do better! Either way we look at it, you are reading this because the title caught your attention and if you are wondering if there is a way to actually “OVERCOME ADDICTION FOREVER”? I am here to tell you YES! Yes, we can overcome the label of addiction and we can live normal happy lives. Actually, we can overcome anything and everything, including addictions but we must be willing to look at it through a new lens and do some things different.

I can say this with full confidence because I HAVE DONE IT! So, for those of you who will read this and want to throw your “un-belief” systems, professional scholars, and medicine” at me, go right ahead! Because I have overcome all kinds of abuse, and I will overcome your nasty, opinionated, comments as well! I am not actually here for you anyway! Like I said, I am here for those who NEED to Believe! Not here for those who live in doubt, fear, and are incapable of understanding the power of wisdom and mindfulness!

Real Help for Addicts

I know it’s not easy admitting we need help, or facing our difficult situations, but if you are still here, you have a purpose and there is more for you. Let’s make a difference in your life, your family’s life, and in the life of those who suffer from across the nation. So, to start I want to begin with some obvious facts about addiction that keeps addicts not only stuck in addiction but never really living life they feel is “normal”.

Facts that keep you stuck in Addiction

1. “Recovery” keeps us in Recovery forever. Call it a “bad habit” instead, and really overcome it. Move on! (Easier said than done, I know)
2. Mindset is everything. You’re living in the old life. As long as the person you were exists, you’ll never Live as a new person in a new environment, with a new life.
3. You feel sorry for yourself. (Constantly Blaming others and not facing your issues keeps you in a state of making “excuses and justifying” your addictions)
4. You keep thinking and saying your life is too hard! (Remember someone else always has it harder and they get through it)
5. You make excuses! Once you decide to change your life, you have to stop making excuses “why you can’t live life”!
6. You’re not thankful for your life and the opportunities that you DO have available to you right now. (Fill up with Gratitude)
7. You keep dwelling on the past and on the shit that pisses you off! Learn something new, love today, Let go of the past and Let GOD guide you to new paths!
8. You must step forward if you ever want to move ahead. (Do something different than before)
9. SUCK IT UP! Life is hard sometimes, we all have hard times, learn from it, grow from it, and discover new ways because of it.
10. You are not mindful of your own thoughts, emotions and actions. Become aware of the body, mind, soul connection.
11. Stop worrying about everyone else! Focus on YOU!!! And ONLY YOU! 
12. Learn to Date yourself before you date someone else. (Get to know yourself and learn to love yourself first and foremost)
13. “Be single not settled” (Know what you want before you settle for what you don’t want)
14. Don’t make any big decisions. Don’t make big purchases unless it’s to help you learn grow and expand in a healthier environment.
15. Express the expectations you have for others. (But remember to Do what YOU say, and say what YOU do)
16. You give up to easily on the things YOU want. Shit is hard, deal with it and push forward but don’t give up so easily!
17. Stop listening to the belief systems that are contrary to your inner beliefs
18. Discover your new path that excites you.

By doing all the above you allow yourself to begin healing. You then become more aware and capable of making better decisions moving forward. When you become your OWN person, your belief system works for you and your purpose in life, Bringing you complete joy, happiness and abundance. Here is the kicker that I have learned about addiction centers. “They say they want to help us ‘recover’, yet the word alone keeps our mental state in “recovery” forever”. And I know many of you don’t want to go to the meetings and be reminded of yur addiction week after week, year after year. If you don’t get right in your head, you will be stuck in a place where people are constantly looking at you like “you’re the problem”! Instead of getting to the actual source to overcome it completely you will be fighting with people who don’t care to know the real you! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not totally “anti-rehab center’. I just have my own system to overcome addiction by eliminating words that distort the mindset. And the process to actually “overcome” addiction is less complex than most people make it. I can tell you this, most addicts don’t want to just live life as a “recovering addict”. The label sucks and it keeps us stuck thinking of our past personality, our past environments and always talking about our past traumas. That is not fixing anything, and it dam sure is not helping anyone overcome addiction, depression, manic behavior or helping them live a happier more fulfilled life. My system is not for everyone, and that is okay!

I am one person I don’t have the means or time to help everyone. I am not trying to change the entire world. That would be nearly impossible. But I do believe I can change a small piece of the worlds puzzle. The pieces filled with people who feel unique and different and want to belong and not just exist. “Nobody wants to exist in this world without purpose and meaning”. No one wants to just exist feeling stuck living in other people’s beliefs systems. Isn’t that why we are screaming through social media, protesting and causing havoc right now? No one person was created to live life uncomfortable and unknown! And so, not everyone has to like what I say but we should all be open minded to hear what others have to say. If I can resonate and impact one life and that life goes on to help another, then I have not only made my ripple effect into the world to make it a better place, but I also felt loved, in unity with another human. I felt appreciated and special because I helped another, person. I didn’t’ feel neglected because of my trauma but instead I used it to help others overcome or avoid it completely. I didn’t feel alone in my thoughts, ideas, or emotions. because I got vulnerable, and someone said “YES YES! I FEEL THAT! I HEAR THAT! I RESONATE WITH THAT!” And that is what every single individual wants right now. Right? Not just addicts or the mentally ill, but all humans crave empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

For those of us that have always felt special, unique, and different it is important that we learn to accept ourselves before we allow the world to make us feel unworthy because we are different! Because that is where addiction begins. Some of us find it easy to make it day to day with our daily struggles, while others choose to destroy themselves in the struggle. I have lost so many friends, family, and loved ones due to this “addiction” label! And the many other Labels that keep people abandoned and mistreated. Today, I am DONE! I am just done being quiet! And I’m done watching so many loved ones die because they are being labeled! I am done watching this world divide us because of our differences. WE ALL BLEEED RED! It doesn’t have to be this way! We can all be different and live a happy and fulfilled life in the same world! It is a choice! It’s a mindset!!!!

I don’t understand how I Made it through without rehab, and other people didn’t make it a year out of rehab! Yet they went to the professionals! They went to the meetings! They took the medications! And Here I am, and they’re gone! I don’t understand why so many people keep doing the same thing over, and over again, knowing the success rate of addiction is not getting better! As doctor Joe Dispenza says, “This is not the time of just knowing, this is the time to be doing”! There is too much information out there right now, for us to be doing the same damn thing, year after year, trying to get better results! Most rehab centers are lacking! Let’s start doing better! Let’s start listening to the people who know better! The people who have been through it. Let’s stop shutting out other options and start listening to all the different ideas of those who have taken the journey. Stop underestimating the power of the mind and medicating everything! You know chemicals cause reactions so why do we continue to medicate and cause more of an imbalance before we even clean out the system completely of all toxins? And I mean the exterior and interior! Let’s try harder to find a common denominator with addiction so that we can pinpoint the problem before it happens! Let’s take a journey together and learn how to beat addiction and overcame it FOREVER! Let’s work harder to remove all addictions from our life and learn to be mindful of our thoughts, emotions, and actions so that we can avoid and prevent bad habits like this one. We are capable of coming up with a solution so we can avoid “overdoses” from happening in the future.

Are you aware that most addictions begin when life throws something at us that we are unable to manage, cope or deal with? We basically pick up bad habits like drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, and the like, to numb ourselves from our own reality! That’s right! We act out by doing things that numb us mentally, emotionally, and physically from the events that are happening in life. If we can acknowledge that, we can limit the addiction rate by teaching our children to cope with their issues at a younger age. We must start a new cycle by teaching our children awareness.  However, awareness must start with the parents first! The home is where we listen, learn, observe, experience, and build belief systems. When we are not mindful of these things and we just live in a state of “going through the motions”, these things define our character and determine the paths we take in life.

Maybe we should begin this journey with “awareness” for people to be better parents so that the children can learn how to cope with life. Then again it should probably start with the parents, right? As parents are the ones that should be leading their children without the dependency on substance abuse, or any other bad habits that can become addictions. Parents should lead their kids to experience proper skills for how they should properly manage life when struggles come along.  Listen, life is going to happen! That is just LIFE! You can be 100% certain life will come down on you at some point!

But without being faced with bad or difficult times, you wouldn’t even know what good even looks like!  I hate to break it to you, but you must learn how to maintain yourself during the ups and downs of your own journey through life! Life is not going to be unicorns and rainbows all the time! That is fantasy world, and the fact of life is this, sometimes we need to hit rock bottom to know where we want to go! Your personal journey would have no balance without the GOOD AND BAD experiences! If it was all good, you would never have a reason to push forward into newness! Yes, I said “NEWNESS”! Don’t you want to have new experiences, new relationships, new environments, and a new life?

If you never experience anything different you will never experience anything new. How do you think humans learn and grow? We experience life, good and bad, and we become stronger for it! How about we try to find solutions to our struggles with more poise, instead of getting angry, depressed, or frustrated. By acting out we are placing a label on ourselves and as we go through life, and when we do that, we give permission for “the professionals” to call us clinically depressed, bipolar, manic, an addict, etc. And we end up with labels placed on us based on our behavior. Society says, “just give them prescription medications” (drugs). Which keep us unfocused, loopy, and completely unaware mentally, spiritually and physically”. I say, “become aware of your environment, your circumstances, your conditions, and yourself ‘mentally, spiritually, and physically and learn to love all that you are”. Love all the messy parts of yourself and all the blessings you’ve already received, because it makes you who you are!

My past addiction is not even something I think about anymore. Accept when I am trying to feed into someone who is in recovery or currently in their addiction. Today, I can actually go out and have a drink and live a normal life without thinking I am going to have a relapse! I never worry about relapsing and my family is not worried about me overdosing or getting back on drugs when my life gets a little difficult! Adversity is part of life; we are all going through something. Regardless of what “the professionals” teach us, addiction is just a bad habit, and habits can be broken! Like the habit of working too much and not paying attention to your kids. Or using your phone too much and not even being present with the people who you say you love! Or continuously lying to your loved ones because you gambled all your bill money away. So, if anyone tells you that it’s a disease and it can be treated but not cured, they’re lying!!! Your addiction is a bad habit and habit can be broken!

I think alcohol and drug use is the culprit of most illnesses like aids, STDs, HIV, and many other diseases. I don’t believe it has anything to do with race color or ethnicity. Unless we are talking about statistics based on an individual’s beliefs. I am not going to talk about that right now. For that sake of this article, I am sticking to topic, which is addiction. So, what I do believe is that depression, psychological disorders, and trauma cause people to resort to drugs, alcohol, and other substance abuse, and addictions. So, there is a cycle that we ignore in “addiction”, and that is, they are just people with a bad habit caused by some trauma or underlining issue they have not learned to manage or cope with. BOTTOM LINE!!! Why do we treat the use of drugs and alcohol as a disease with more drugs? It makes no sense to me!

One Solution to Overcoming Addiction

Let’s lose the label altogether and treat these people as regular human beings with just a “bad habit”. They are choosing to live a lifestyle that they have become accustomed to for some reason. And as a friend, family member or professional therapists, our only job is to help them overcome this addiction by helping them discover their WHY. That way we can help them learn the HOW to stop! And please, when they want help, they will send signs and ask for help and that is when we should help. But I guarantee most families had a chance to help early on and failed to listen! Because people don’t listen anymore! They’re too busy talking listening to their own voice. Everyone is out for themselves, and everyone is so quick to judge others without looking in the mirror at their own reflection. Many people have become selfish, greedy, power hungry, narcissists who don’t listen to their loved ones. They sit back and judge them when they don’t agree with a specific belief system and yet, they refuse to listen, and I mean really listen! This behavior has gotten so out of control because poeple don’t see the signs of a person crying for “HELP” before they progress into something dangerous or into unhealthy habits! So instead of friends, family, and professionals helping these individuals, we unintentionally make the problem worse. When we pretend everything is fine it only allows more time for our problems to fester and build! Making people feel like their thoughts, feelings, and emotions are abnormal is a dysfunctional way to treat someone to make change. And maybe they are completely dysfunctional. I have had some dysfunctional thoughts myself back in the day. But for that same reason, instead of me seeking help, I chose to save myself and almost died in the process!

The divine will catch you when you fall

but you must be the one to get up!

Christina Ditzel

Continue to Part 2 | “How to overcome addiction”. Where I will go over step-by-step instructions to overcome addiction. I will give you simple steps for the addict, and for family, friends and professionals to discover new ways of helping these individuals. Because at the end of the day, EVERYONE has changes to make. Not just the addict!

If you need more advice in other areas of your life, please comment below, and follow me on social media. You can find my PODCAST at ZEN LENZ MEDIA ON SPOTIFY. or just grab my book “Hot mess to totally blessed” on Amazon Today. This is how you begin your journey into an abundant life. Living in abundance is a lifestyle choice…

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