Staying Clean and Sober in The Everyday World

As addicts we want to blame others for our addiction.  This is another in the list of defense mechanisms.  It is much easier if we can blame someone else for the mess we are in than to blame our self.  If we have to look at our own faults then we must admit that it is our problem and that we alone created this mess.  No one wants to take responsibility for their own actions.  By blaming some one else we can take the focus off of us.  We can gain sympathy Continue Reading »

We talked about denial yesterday.  Today we will discuss isolation and an addict uses it to his/her advantage.  Isolation occurs when an addict cuts off ties with their family and friends who do not use.  We do that for a very good reason.  sometimes we have more than one reason.  For me I cut off ties with my mother and my daughter while I was using.  As a matter of fact if a person was not an addict I usually did not have much to say to them in any way unless I was trying to Continue Reading »

Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.

Yep that pretty much sums it up.  That is exactly what we do as addicts.  Our family and friends try to reason with us.  They tell us how bad off we really are.  We know it is true what they are saying.  We just do not want to admit the bitter truth so we deny what is really going on not only to them but to ourselves as well.  We become so good at denial that it takes something very drastic to get us to see the light. Continue Reading »