Quotes About Addiction

When we attempt to control people and things that we have no business controlling, we are controlled. We forfeit our power to think, feel, and act in accordance with our best interests. We frequently lose control of ourselves. Often, we are being controlled not just by people but by diseases such as alcoholism, eating disorders, and compulsive gambling.

the non-drinking person in a relationship with an alcoholic got just as out of control, was in just as much pain, and needed just as much healing as the alcoholic. Al-Anon

Chemical dependency destroys slowly but thoroughly

Most recovering addicts and alcoholics have codependency underneath.

Codependents aren't crazier or sicker than alcoholics. But, they hurt as much or more.

with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you—they are saying they don't love themselves.

When people with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you—they are saying they don't love themselves. — CODEPENDENT NO MORE

with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you—they are saying they don't love themselves. — CODEPENDENT NO MORE

with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you—they are saying they don't love themselves. — CODEPENDENT

When we got clean, we could do things other people couldn't—like help other addicts and alkies get sober. We could be as good as we'd been bad. We were useful; there was a place for us in the world. It had been fun to get high, but it was even more exciting to get sober. We believed in recovery. We believed in people. We believed in life, and we believed in God. There was a revolution going on. "For a while it was Camelot," a friend said.

That's the thing with addicts. We don't intend to drink or use drugs. Usually the times we most shouldn't drink or use is when we end up drinking and using the most. Loss of control is the identifying stamp and seal of addiction. We lose control of when we use, what we use, how much we use, and what we do when we're drunk or stoned.

Even recovering alcoholics and addicts noticed they were codependent and perhaps had been long before becoming chemically dependent.8 Codependents started cropping up everywhere.

Pneumonia victims will cough until they get appropriate treatment for their illness. Alcoholics will drink until they get the same.

When people with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you—they are saying they don't love themselves.

It wasn't a love story. -Tar's dad It was a love story. Me, Gemma, and junk. -Tar

I'm really looking forward to being clean again. It's this weird thing with smack. First off it makes you feel so good. But after a bit, after your body gets used to it, it stops working like that. You start needing it just to stay normal... Then you get sick of it and give it up for a few days. And that's the really nasty thing because then, when you're clean, that's when it works so well.

I bet the pill is harder to get than drugs--which shows how screwed up this world really is!

Now my feeling is that our hope lies in reality because the culture of empire--the capitalist, hedonistic patriarchal culture is driven by fantasy--an addiction to fantasy. To the extent that we can encourage and promote facing reality, we have concrete reasons to hope.

While the poor are offered addiction as a way to escape thinking too much, working people are encouraged to shop.

Addiction makes love impossible.

Oftentimes the poor are more addicted to excess because they are the most vulnerable to all the powerful messages in media and in our lives in general which suggest that the only way out of class shame is conspicuous consumption

Addicts want release from pain; they are not thinking about love. In Stanton Peele's useful book Love and Addiction, he makes the insightful point that addiction is not about relatedness. Addiction makes love impossible. [...] Hence, addiction is both a consequence of widespread lovelessness and a cause. [...] Greed characterizes the nature of this pursuit because it is unending; the desire is ongoing and can never be fully satisfied.

Work is the curse of the drinking man

Benjamin again: "Gambling converts time into a narcotic.")