I was thinking about this the other day and thought it must be the regaining of control. Drug Abuse, drug addiction, including alcohol abuse and alcoholism is all about losing control.

I remember sitting in bad places: Jails, stranded, homeless; making plans on what I was going to do about it. The problem with these plans was, as long as I was using, I really didn’t have control over the outcome. Very late in my career as an addict did I associate my circumstances with my addiction. I used to wonder “How did this happen”?

The answer was simple: drug addiction. I didn’t have control over the future event because I was an addict. My first real connecting of the addiction with the situation was made in regards to a physical feeling. The feeling was “I’m to tired to do this anymore”. Addiction had worn me out. Once I made the connection I was able to get free.

We can still get ourselves into ridiculous, miserable, situations in life after addiction but we get to control this. Drugs and alcohol no longer takes over and puts us there: It’s all us. Well, us and some others. But we can avoid those “others” to some degree.

At last we are back in control. We might not be any good at it but we’re there. Now we get to live and learn just like every body else. Got a favorite thing about life after addiction?