The Four Causes of Addiction

Chris Prentiss, in The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure (https://www.yelp.com/biz/chris-prentiss-physical-therapy-commack), claims there are just four reasons for abusing alcohol and drugs:

1.    Chemical imbalance

2.    Unresolved events from the past

3.    Beliefs you hold that are inconsistent with what is true

4.    Inability to cope with current conditions

Which is you? My problem was #4. I wrote about it in my book, Corking the Bottle (https://covenantbooks.com/books/?book=corking-the-bottle):

"Then the wheels came off and life spun out of control. I was laid off on the day, almost, of my 50th birthday. Several would-be employers turned me down for jobs, some after interviews and some without responding to my applications. Even fast-food joints weren’t interested in me. I got a part-time job with a crisis communications firm, but it wasn’t the same as the community relations work I had come to enjoy so much. I lived off my 401K and pension and my wife’s income from working the zoo gift shop. Cripes, we used to be making six figures together! Not anymore. 

"My marriage felt strained and intimacy became a fond memory. My older daughter resented the time I was spending as a volunteer with disadvantaged kids and jealously accused me of getting too friendly with little girls. She quit speaking to me. Kids in the youth program I had created grew up and some of them chose to wallow in the ditches I had tried to lead them out of. Some had families and good jobs, but all I could see were the addicts and criminals I had watched grow up. I had arthroscopic knee surgery, which pretty much ended my running career. I started gaining weight. My beard turned white. I denied my depression for a long time before I got help from my doctor. But the mood-altering pills didn’t work well enough. Alcohol worked better.

"My drinking increased. My thoughts were of poor, pitiful me. There seemed to be no solution. The good life was over. My wife was ready to leave me. Good! That would give me another reason to drink."

More later from this interesting book (Prentiss's, I mean).

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