By Glenn Munso, Youth You Program founder
For many years I was trapped and suffocated in the cycle of drug addiction.
It was dark and it was like a never-ending cycle that I could only sometimes see a way out of.
Some days I was determined that I would change and sometimes I didn’t care anymore.
I had somehow convinced myself on the hard days that the drug-addicted person I had become was who I was, but deep down this was not true.
Many people get it wrong when it comes to addiction, myself included.
I got it wrong many times before I got it right.
For many years I was just focusing on the drug itself, just focusing on how I could stop taking the drugs when really it was the internal issues that needed to be addressed.
To break the cycle of addiction you need to change your lifestyle, work on your identity and face the issues that you keep running away from.
We use drugs to hide and mask emotions that we don’t wish to face or feel.
Taking drugs is running away from the problem, it is running away from something we don’t want to accept.
Breaking the cycle of addiction is about connecting and integrating within.
It’s about becoming one and knowing about yourself on a deeper level.
It’s about learning how to express the emotions that we have suppressed for so long.
The people that use the drugs are the sensitive ones, they are the people that feel the most.
Because they feel the most they get overwhelmed with the sensation of emotions and they look for anything to escape and numb that pain.
It’s about learning how to work and express the feelings you are feeling.
Instead of suppressing we must find ways to express these feelings.
It’s about learning how to check in and communicate with yourself.
The person using drugs hasn’t learnt the skills of expressing or developed ways to cope with the depth of emotions in circumstances they have experienced in life.
Some people believe that you have to create a whole new identity in order to overcome drug addiction, but it has been my personal experience throughout my own recovery and working with countless youth who have experienced drug addiction, that creating an identity away from drug addiction really comes down to facing yourself and coming to terms with all of your potential, all that you hold within you already, and the ability to be resilient, expressive and to really accept without judgment of the human experience.
Breaking the cycle of drug addiction and creating a new identity really comes down to reaching out and getting a solid support system, whether that’s through friends, family or a foundation.
Take it one day at a time and find and implement new and healthy ways to express emotions.
Set your intentions for the day and make your daily actions lead you in the right direction of your desired outcome.
