The Battle of Addiction

Every day people are silently (and not so silently) fighting a Battle.  A Battle against homelessness, a Battle against drugs, a Battle against alcohol, a Battle against pain – emotional as well as physical, a Battle against poverty.  These Battles may not be so well known as the bigger Battles carried out by Country against Country but are Battles nevertheless.  To some these other Battles may not be seen as such as the answer seems easy to solve. “Just stop drinking/using/ get a job/ go home…etc then you wouldn’t need to Battle”.   However, whilst it may seem that some of these are personal choices, and perhaps  they might have been in the beginning, by the time someone gets to figure out the positions they are in sometimes it is no longer a choice but a way of life.  No one would choose to be addict, no one would choose to sleep rough on the streets but when life has spiralled so far out of control it is hard to find the energy to put effort into changing or even know how to do it.

I have met some great people who have trusted me enough to work with them to get their addiction under control as it can be a long slow path back to some normality and I am thankful for that.   I would have liked to say help them to “beat” their addiction but like many battles we see constantly reappearing between worn torn Countries, times change and old wounds reopen and the Battles recommence.  With an addiction it is always watchful, waiting for the wound so “beat” is a tough call for an addiction but it can be controlled, contained and tamed.

But just like in those Warring Countries there are casualties. For some the emotional pain they are in is too much to bear and when all hope has gone, they decide its’ time to quit life. They have given up all hope of winning the War and have no energy left to do Battle.  So all that is left is for those that do, and will, mourn them to wait for the dreaded call that comes to know how and when it ended and to grieve the loss and futility of another lost life for an unknown and sometimes undeserved cause.