Today, I went to a 12 step program meeting with someone I know.  I went to support them, but I was actually able to get something out of the meeting myself.  A primary focus of the program is to be anonymous, so I can’t give too many details…. But, it was such a warm and inviting environment, it reminded me of church.  One woman spoke about how her addiction turned her from a successful business woman with employees into a minimum wage worker at a fast food joint.  She had so many inspirational things to say.  But the phrase that stuck out in mind was “You don’t have to “use/drink/eat/smoke/shop/sex” whatever your thing is…if you don’t want to.”  And that seems so simple, but so true.  I related her story to my love/abuse of food.  Sometimes we feel so compelled to eat the turtle cheesecake or drink the sugary drink.  We feel like we have to have it, even though deep down that’s not what we want.  But in reality, we don’t have to have it, if we don’t want to.  I like that she made a decision to take control over her life and not let her “thing” control her.  She said if you’re using that “thing” as the solution, then you need to ask what’s the problem?   Often times, once we figure out the actual problem, we realize that our doing our “thing” only makes things worse.  So today, before you get stressed at work and eat a donut, or let that person get on your last nerve and drive you to the ice cream shop, try to address the problem, with a real solution that might actually work. 

Leave a Reply