--Thursday, 02 February 2006--

Our ability to recovery
By Kelvin Fahie

Life is one big road with lots of signs, but for those with chemical dependency all roads lead to self-destruction. People with chemical dependency are master planners. They plan, dream and fantasize.

Actually, they are often too busy planning to act, and too busy planning to notice that their life is falling apart around them. In the world of chemical dependency life is filled with self-pity, surrounded by the pointing of fingers and the blame game. It's always someone's else fault.

In the case of addiction life is what happens to us while making other plans. The stage for failure is set by the unwillingness to act. Yet the goal of therapy is to help you to move from thought to action and from concept to reality.

Within drug and alcohol dependency people can use pain as an excuse to stop trusting, or they can learn to look beyond the pain and learn that survival is possible.

The disease of chemical dependency may take away certain parts of life, but it also provides the challenges of building a new, more meaningful way of life that proves recovery is worth the risk.

(Mr. Fahie is an addiction counsellor).

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