Addiction is an experience not a personality

Addiction is an experience.  It is the experience of habitually trying in vain to meet a need with substitutes; or grasping to meet an imagined need.  I think when I acknowledge such experiences I am more likely to gain the needed perspectives to see things as they truly are.

Today she came to my office not for herself but to help her sister who just had a newborn and needed to see me.  She told me she is now working as counselor for others who are experiencing problem with addictions.  She shared with me that she can now see how her personal experience with addiction resulted in her compassion for others.  She felt that her work to help others is not merely a job but more a way to be and a way of life.

I don’t think I have all the words to fully express such miracles which I have the privilege to witness and learn from as a family physician.  I do think of my work as not merely a job but a series opportunities to learn and authentically share perspectives with individuals in their moments of need and openness.