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I agree that there are plenty of unhelpful ideas about addiction. I'm not aware of any available sources where I can prove to you "here's her success rate", but

I agree that there are plenty of unhelpful ideas about addiction. I'm not aware of any available sources where I can prove to you "here's her success rate", but again, I found her work directly applicable to my own addiction issues and reformulating some of my preconceived ideas and self-hatred that had been hammered into me from an early age and were actually part of my problem. "I don't have a choice" is a straw man. "There are a myriad of factors I didn't choose that led to the circumstances of my addiction" is not a realization of helplessness, but an understanding of the systemic factors involved. Understanding this is critical to making the internal mental shifts necessary to actually break the cycle. Factors beyond one's control doesn't imply no choice is available. It just contextualizes the problem, and the resulting understanding can be an escape hatch. I can't change the circumstances of my birth. I can't undo the childhood filled with complex trauma that left me seeking any kind of relief I could find. But understanding those factors means I can learn how to cope with them in better ways.

brutusborn 3y ago
Thanks for the reply, I was grumpy yesterday and pushed back a bit hard, I think I understand your nuance of choice of continuing addiction vs choice of developing addiction now. Out of interest, what addiction did she help you overcome?
- haswell 3y ago
  It's all good. It's one of the harder facts of life to swallow: I didn't choose the factors that lead to this, but I still have to deal with them, and I'm the only person who can. True of many things in life. I'd prefer not to add more unique data points to my HN profile for privacy reasons, but to speak in generalities, I've struggled with a variety of substances and behavioral loops since I was in my late teens stemming from that abusive background. I spent a lot of time pissed off at my parents, and later at myself for not "having the strength" to overcome these things on my own, while not understanding why I was drawn to them in the first place. If the car is eating oil, something probably needs to be tuned up, so to speak.

brutusborn 3y ago

Thanks for the reply, I was grumpy yesterday and pushed back a bit hard, I think I understand your nuance of choice of continuing addiction vs choice of developing addiction now. Out of interest, what addiction did she help you overcome?

haswell 3y ago
It's all good. It's one of the harder facts of life to swallow: I didn't choose the factors that lead to this, but I still have to deal with them, and I'm the only person who can. True of many things in life. I'd prefer not to add more unique data points to my HN profile for privacy reasons, but to speak in generalities, I've struggled with a variety of substances and behavioral loops since I was in my late teens stemming from that abusive background. I spent a lot of time pissed off at my parents, and later at myself for not "having the strength" to overcome these things on my own, while not understanding why I was drawn to them in the first place. If the car is eating oil, something probably needs to be tuned up, so to speak.