Hello, dear reader. Have you been practicing identifying your inner addicted voice? That thing can be a wormy little fucker. It can be like a game of whack-a-mole.
“Wow the winter time sure is dark and dreary, why don’t we have a drink to cheer us up?”
Whack.
“Wow the spring time sure is warm and cheery, wouldn’t it be nice to have a drink out on the patio?”
Whack.
“Well if we are going to be all anti-social, why not get stoned before we clean the house”?”
Whack.
The addicted voice is creative, inventive, and seems to be around every corner. Remember — the addicted voice is a part of us that lives in an ancient part of our brain. This ancient part of our brain is what recognizes things that release dopamine as things we need to keep doing to maintain our survival. Addictive substances cause artificially large dopamine spikes, and that makes that part of the brain think we really need to continue this activity to survive. It thinks that if we stop using addictive substances that death is inevitable. This is why it is so darn persistent!
How do we respond to the addicted voice in a way that doesn’t feed it?
Ignoring or stuffing it down will only make it stronger. Imagine someone is knocking at your door because they think you are in danger. If you don’t answer the door, they will knock harder, and maybe even try to break in. The addicted voice has good intentions, poor execution, and is unfortunately gravely misdirected. If someone was knocking at the door because they thought our life was in danger, we would answer the door calmly and let them know that we are safe. This is the invitation for how to speak to the addicted voice.
“Hello, addicted voice. I see you want to go have a drink on the patio. In my core self, I know that drinking no longer serves me. Thank you for the idea, but I’ll pass.”
The calm recognition of the addicted voice, the return to the core self, and the choice to do something different is the work. Will the addicted voice return? Surely. Will it learn over time that there’s a new sheriff in town? Also, surely. Each time we interrupt the feedback loop of addiction and return to our core self we create new neural pathways in the brain. The old ones fade slowly, and the new ones start to take the front seat.
You are in charge of your life. It’s time to take rightful ownership of the driver’s seat.
May you be happy and free, dear reader.
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