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Kathy
Williamson’s MANIFESTO ON
ADDICTIONS Introducing A New Model On
What Causes & Cures
Addictions * * * * * * * * * * *
* Providing Hope To All Addicts To
Permanently Overcome Their Addictions And To
Live An Exciting, Abundant Life!!
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There’s nothing new under the sun. Addictions have always been around and will continue as long as the underlying issues are not addressed. Today’s openness about addictions is encouraging. But the false
teachings addicts are receiving are not. Society tries to curb drug abuse by educating people and
focusing on shutting down the drug dealers. However, until the demand for
drugs diminishes due to the lack of addicts who want to buy drugs or
alcohol, the demand/supply ratios will continue to
skyrocket. So how does society help the addict? Right now, rather poorly!
Relapse rates of alcoholics and drug abusers can be as high as 100%. Why
are they so high? Because addictions are being treated as the main
problem, instead of as a symptom of underlying
problems. The addicts of today have been taught only one, possibly two,
theories on what causes their addictions. Both of the following two
theories treat the addiction as the main problem. Therefore, relapse rates
are extremely high. The Disease Model
The Disease Model became popular in the 1980s. Health insurance
companies noticed that the number of alcoholics who sought treatment was
very small. They thought that perhaps the person was too ashamed to admit
to his problem of excessive drinking. Or he felt like a failure because he
couldn’t stop, no matter how hard he tried or how emotionally distraught
he was on how his drinking affected his family. So insurance companies began a campaign to help more alcoholics
get the treatment they needed. They began to tell the alcoholic, “It’s not
your fault that you drink.” And they began to label alcoholism as a
disease. Being classified as a disease removes personal responsibility and
any shame associated with how they’ve ruined their lives.
This approach must have had some success because now insurance companies and most in the psychology fields carry this same approach over to almost any problem a person might be stuck in:
In recent years a new twist has been added to this philosophy –
there are genes that one inherits to make him more susceptible to becoming
an addict. Treating these problems as a disease or the result of an
inherited gene adds an additional destructive element to the mix: it takes
away any hope of ever being free of the addiction. This element is
critical to a complete cure of the addiction. Not only are counselors telling the addicts there is no “cure”
for this disease, but this message is now reinforced by the typical AA
12-Step support group or recovery program. Addicts are being told they can
only learn to manage their disease and they’ll never fully get cured of
it. This approach has also infiltrated into the church – from the
pulpit to the weekly support groups for addicts. Speaking of the church,
let me tell you about the second theory on
addictions. The Moral Model
The Moral Model has been around for decades. The premise is
that the alcoholic or drug abuser needs God (or Jesus Christ) in their
life to give him the willpower to not drink excessively or to abuse drugs.
The addiction is seen as sin and therefore if a person truly repents of
doing that sin (and commits to turn away from doing it in the future),
that God will give him the power to do so. Once again, the addiction is seen as the main problem and lack
of willpower as the underlying problem that will solve the addiction.
Another angle on the Moral Model is that the addiction has
become an idol in the addict’s heart. The belief is that once that issue
has been identified, then the “it’s your choice” aspect will be resolved
once an addict knows his behavior displeases God. Yet another angle is promoted by those addicts whose cravings
for alcohol or drugs were instantly removed by God when they asked Jesus
Christ to be their Lord and Savior. Such experiences do happen, but it is
not something that can be guaranteed for everyone. Sometimes Christians will state, “If you only have enough
faith, God will heal you of your addiction.” This statement is made with
good intentions, but when the addict doesn’t get healed (because the
underlying causes have never been dealt with), his hope in God gets
destroyed. Neither the Disease Model nor the Moral Model recognize that
the addiction is a symptom of underlying problems. So let’s now delve into what lies hidden underneath this
symptom of addiction.
Introducing A New
Model
The Escape
Model
Addictions are a symptom of underlying problems. Unless these
problems are dealt with, relapse awaits the addict. It’s not a matter of
willpower, or making the right choice, or having a spiritual experience.
There are real underlying causes that require real solutions to cure
addictions. The addict is escaping from either: (1) Emotional pain (2) Boredom in life (3) Being stuck focusing only on me, myself and
I (4) Frustration of not being able to put
action to her goals (internal blockages) These four elements include things such
as:
While the above are the initial areas addicts want to escape
from, through the process of trying to stop their addiction, another
problem overcomes them. That is the total self-centered, introspective
search that now consumes them and holds them in another bondage.
But let’s first take a look at a few of these elements. Then
I’ll get into how to cure these underlying issues. Escape
From Emotional Pain
While a person may have experimented with alcohol or drugs to
see what it felt like, continual use leading to an addiction occurs
because the “good” feeling is easier to handle than the “bad” feelings. It
seems the emotional hurts, anxieties, negative attitudes and other
emotions keep bombarding the addict. This escape by abusing alcohol or
drugs may not be happening on a conscious level. But as time rolls on, the
addict soon realizes he can handle things better (or so he thinks) when
he’s on alcohol or using drugs. Many times addicts do know what emotions or situations they’re
escaping from. If they don’t, their friends or family usually can see why
they’re drinking or abusing drugs. This transition from experimenting with drugs to becoming
addicted happens quicker than anticipated. This easily occurs in the use
of prescription drugs. A person gets a prescription for pain pills for a
legitimate pain in his body. However, the euphoria from the pills soothes
away his bad emotions and he begins to feel better emotionally. (However,
sometimes pain pills make a person more emotional.) This escape from
unpleasant emotions now becomes a focal point in order to survive daily
living. Once a person realizes he is addicted, he then begins a long
journey of self-introspection in an attempt to escape the grip of the drug
or alcohol. One aspect of this search is to find out what event or hurt
caused him to want to escape. He thinks that if he can uncover this
secret, then all he’ll have to do is resolve that issue and his desire for
his addiction will disappear. However, as mentioned earlier, when this search does not
quickly uncover that reason, he adds another problem to his repertoire –
of being totally self-introspective. During his search he is told that his addiction is a disease
and he’ll never be cured of it. This takes away any hope he was searching
for to get his life back to normal. He looks around at others in his support group and sees how
everyone else is stuck, just like him. He wants to deny his problem
because he doesn’t want to live a life of hopelessness. He’s thinking,
there’s got to be a way out, a way back to living a normal life.
But no one offers him any hope.
Escape From
Boredom This addict got started because there was nothing better to do.
The high from the drugs or alcohol drown out the cry of his heart . . . is this all there is to
life? He may have a great career, a wife and kids, yet he longs for
something more in life. He’s bored. He has no reason “not” to mess up his
life. He also begins the search for a way out of his addiction. But
he also ends up stuck in the never-ending relapse cycle. Except his life
took a turn for the worse when his wife took the kids and left because of
his drug or alcohol abuse. This escape from boredom aspect also affects almost all types
of addicts who are in the “clean” stage for a while. When the excitement
wears off from staying clean, getting their lives semi back to normal,
pretty soon boredom sets in. They don’t have an awesome future to go
after. They don’t have a reason “not” to mess up. Deep in their
subconscious they know they were able to handle their addiction before, no
matter how bad it got, so they can handle it again. So they
relapse. Escape From The
“Me, Myself & I”
Focus Most addicts are not aware of this problem creeping up on them.
Once they admit to themselves they are addicted, they begin to look inward
to determine why they got started, and what can they do to get out of it.
They listen to what society tells them on how to stop their addiction, but
that process fails because it doesn’t deal with the underlying issues.
So the addict continues to look inward for motivation,
willpower, and determination to break this addiction!
Escape From
Frustration Because Of Emotional Blockages How many times have each of us made plans, thought we had the
motivation to carry through, but at the last minute we backed out? We try
it again, and stop just short of carrying through our intentions. Soon we
become frustrated and quit trying. What causes us to do this? It’s called “emotional blockages.”
Something in our past, whether it is something that was programmed into us
as a child or as an adult, keeps us from moving forward. As children we
accepted whatever was told to us or modeled by our parents, teachers, and
other important people in our lives. Not all of those things were true! Addicts have additional bad programming by society to make them
believe they cannot do certain things . . . like permanently overcome
their addiction. They also have their own self-talk going on that says,
“You’ve tried before and failed, what makes you think you can succeed this
time?” And the negative thinking continues to spiral down into the
pit. How To Stop
Escaping! Remember the list of bad emotions and boredom the addict wants
to escape from?
There are other elements hidden underneath some of these
issues:
That’s a lot of ground to cover! I can’t get into detail on
each area in this short Manifesto On Addictions. So where does an addict
begin? There are four principles that when focused on will have the
most impact on resolving a lot of the above
situations: 1) Forgive
those who have hurt you and learn how to develop healthy, loving
relationships. 2) Discover
what one’s passion is in life and how to turn it in a life-long
vision. 3) Use
one’s vision to reach out to love and serve others. 4) Identify
one’s false beliefs, change any stinking thinking, and learn how to get
through any emotional blockages. When an addict focuses on implementing these four principles,
the emotional turmoil subsides. As a by-product of these positive elements
taking hold of the addict, his desire for his addiction goes
away. I would like to take a few moments to expound upon the second
principle. This principle will have the most profound impact on an
addict’s life. The underlying positive influences of this principle
are:
Most addicts I talk to have no idea what their passion is.
Their dreams were put on the shelf years ago. It’s my belief that God
created everyone with a passion to do something. I have a chapter in my
ebook Out of Addiction
& Into Living Your Dreams! that helps a person discover
his passion. Once it is identified, the addict needs to operate within
that passion at a minimum of once a week. Another principle I want to expound upon is the “Identify and
Change Any Stinking Thinking.” When an addict changes his thinking – he
changes his destiny. This element is totally absent from recovery programs. When an
addict gets clean, unless his stinking thinking is changed, relapse awaits
him. Two types of negative thinking need to be dealt
with. The first are all the negative self-talk statements:
Once these thoughts (and false beliefs) are identified, they
can be stopped. But stopping them is only half the solution. One must
replace those negative thoughts with positive, up-lifting, motivating and
energy-filled thoughts. What will fulfill this? Dreaming about one’s
future, visualizing accomplishing these dreams and feeling the excitement
of reaching the goals. The second type of negative thinking is the self-sabotaging
thinking and the resulting unconscious behaviors that keep people confined
to their current comfort level (which can be a level of discomfort).
Why do lottery winners lose all their winnings and possibly end
up in a worse financial situation? Their capacity to receive was stuck at
their previous financial level of comfort. Their unconscious beliefs went
to work to bring them back down to that level. Why do addicts end up blowing it after being clean for a period
of time? Their stinking thinking tells them they’re not worthy of feeling
this good and to have all these positive things happening to them. So
their unconscious beliefs cause behavior that brings them back down to
their lower level of comfort. Many arguments are not started for the sake of what’s being
argued about. But they’re started to mess up something good going on in
one’s life. Because the person believes he shouldn’t be enjoying life this
good, arguments are a way to get one back into the comfort zone of
discomfort. Money arguments are never about money. This self-sabotaging
thinking and behavior needs to be identified and dealt with. A person
needs to learn how to receive love and abundance, or he will never grow
out of his problems.
There’s Now Solid Hope For
Addicts! This new model – The Escape Model – provides hope for every
addict. By dealing with these underlying issues, an addict can cure
his addiction and turn his life around. With a new outlook on life, addicts are free to dream of living
an exciting, passionate life. They can quit calling themselves an “addict”
or a “recovering addict.” They are limitless in what they can accomplish
in life and how they can impact the world. Will you join me in spreading this message of hope to addicts?
If you know an addict, or a friend who wants to help an addict, direct
them to the following website so they can download this Manifesto On
Addictions. You can also go that page to tell a friend by plugging in
their name and email address. If you need assistance in overcoming your addiction, you can
begin by picking up a free report at my website www.OutOfAddiction.com. You can
also learn about my book Out Of Addiction & Into Living Your
Dreams! If you’re ready to move on with your life, my weekly
brainstorming sessions (audio teachings) will help you learn how to apply
the information in the book to your life. Kathy Kathy
Williamson Addictions
Coach P.S. Regarding the
cry of the heart . . . is this all there is to life? . . . when a
person discovers his passion in life and operates within that passion, at
least on a weekly basis, his life takes on a new purpose and perspective.
Life becomes exciting again! www.OutOfAddictionTraining.com www.ParentingAddictedTeens.com
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Kathy Williamson Addictions Coach Through personal
experience Kathy is aware of the victorious life available to anyone stuck
in their addictions. After a ten-year struggle to stop her addiction to
pain pills, she was finally cured in 1990 and has not returned to her
addiction. Her life totally turned around when she
began fulfilling her God-given vision to develop a Christian-based crisis
hotline. It was a project which used her passion in life (to love and help
people in crisis) and it was big enough to pull her out of the mind-set of
"me, myself and I." As a by-product of that activity, she overcame her
addiction. The principles she
teaches work for any addict since they are biblical in nature. She has two
version of her book—Out of
Addiction & Into Living Your Dreams! (non-Christian version) and
Overcome Any Addiction (the
Christian version). Her desire is to provide hope to all addicts that they
can be cured of their addictions and start living happy, productive lives.
She also shows them how to discover their passion in life and set goals to
reach their God-given destiny. Kathy has been a lay counselor on
Christian-based crisis hotlines for over 12 years, including developing
her own hotline in the early to mid-1990s. She can identify with the deep
emotional struggles people go through, as well as the stinking thinking
they are stuck in. She especially understands the fears, apprehensions,
and negative self-talk of addicts, from her own ten-year struggle to find
a way out. Her recent outreaches include teaching
these principles to addicts in rescue missions and recovery homes who are
transitioning from drug addictions to living their new
life.
Kathy
Williamson |