INTRODUCTION
We are born into this world to create. We are all creators. Our creative nature is always at work from our first breath right up to our last. As creators we can love as well as fear. As creators we can fulfill our fundamental needs such as love, intimacy and creative expression and we can also validate and support limiting thoughts and beliefs that keep us Unfulfilled.
We can do both in the same moment sometimes.
As creators we can experience our moments with a sustained feeling of safety and comfort. We can also experience those very same moments with toxic emotional attachments such as guilt, anger and shame.
All of these sorts of self-defeating feelings compel so many of us to seek relief and or distraction through addictive mechanisms.
What on earth is an addictive mechanism you ask?
Well, here is our definition of addiction and mechanism to which you may find helpful.
ADDICTION:
A conditioned dependence to any psychological or physical mechanism in order to produce and or control a desired emotional effect.
MECHANISM:
The agency or means by which an effect is produced or a purpose accomplished.
Keeping our very broad definitions in mind, you can begin to see how we become habitually dependent to just about anything that changes or controls how we feel.
Sometimes we are trying to feel better.
Sometimes we are trying to feel worse.
Sometimes we don't want to feel anything at all!
There are also times that try to distract ourselves from whatever emotional state we are used to experiencing. Often times we are trying to recreate the sort of feelings we were conditioned to experience. In other words, some of us recreate the feelings that we grew up experiencing.
Some of us grew up experiencing lots of love and support. We watched our parents share a life affirming relationship. We may have recreated that model for ourselves and found it to be unfulfilling.
Perhaps we craved more or different types of relationships.
Maybe we found it difficult to fulfill all of our needs with one primary relationship.
Whatever our truth may have been, we judged it away.
We told ourselves it was wrong and tried to make the best of the situation.
This led to discontentment and restlessness.
All from not honoring our own personal truth.
What brought contentment for others was just not the same for us?
Until we came to terms with this, we were literally living a lie.
We always think something is wrong with us
This self-incrimination creates self-defeating emotions
This exact scenario leads to habitual addictions
There are many variations of these sorts of scenarios.
Many more of us have become addicted to being right about the stories we hold within our mind. Exactly what did being right get you?
Almost all of us have some form of an addiction to distracting ourselves from the mindset we possess.
Here are some that you might find interesting...
We can distract ourselves with relationships that lack true fulfillment but keep us from going nuts or being alone. There are a lot of us who will endure just about any sort of dysfunctional relationship to avoid being alone.
Some of us seek out people to habitually dump our drama filled thoughts upon.
Then there are those of us who habitually attract people who will dump their drama on us just so we can distract ourselves. Without even being aware, many of us have become addicted to the drama and struggles that life seems to be all about.
In actuality, we are addicted to thought patterns that tell us life is a drama and a struggle.
