Incremental self respect

Incremental self respect.

Lower your target to what you can do THIS WEEK.

This is guerrilla recovery.

You really aren't going to completely stop, all at once, how many of your non addict friends quit smoking cigarettes the first time, cold turkey?

Get real.

Work up to it this way... and if you don't work on internal self respect you're just gonna start smoking again as soon as the pain of being addicted/ broke/ fired/ evicted (again)/ your children are tired of you asking to borrow money (again), your parents hang up on you... you get the picture

... all of the above sounds too much like you, I know.

Ok, Not all addicts are addicted the same, Didja know that?

And here's another bright side (the above sounded kinda gloomy, been there, bought way too many tee shirts)... how much your addicted can go up and down.

Bettcha didn't know that one!

If you can't turn something off (like SHAME) then turn the volume down.


You think your a piece of sh** right now, cause you can't quit.. you wont even try cause you already know it's not gonna work... you don't even apply to certain jobs because you KNOW you're not gonna pass the piss test.

Divide and Conquer

You know more than one crack dealer... I know you do, what do you do when your main person is out of stock?

OK, so you know more than one... I'll bet some of the crack dealers you know smoke and some do NOT smoke their own product, correct?

And of the ones that DO smoke, some of them have some restraint, correct?

You KNOW what I'm talking about... there ARE some people who can HOLD product, WANT to smoke, have it PHYSICALLY on their PERSON and refrain from smoking up their product.

You may not know many people like this, but it demonstrates that there ARE levels of being addicted...

So how's that gonna help you?

Work at being LESS addicted, incrementally

Work at... let's pick a battle we're likely to win:

once you start smoking... keep enough for cigs the next day (spend down to $5 and keep that in your pocket... for christs sakes, it wont even buy a single hit)

keep a minimum of $5 in your pocket for an entire week

stop speaking to yourself as if you're trash

That last one is a post to itself... addicts are seldom aware that their internal self talk is characterized by 'beatin themselves up'

we beat ourselves up so much we're accustomed to it...

How much you're addicted is NOT set in stone... you can eat at it around the fringes, look at it this way... just because someone's first opinion of you sucks, you DO get another chance to make a first impression... EVERY impression is new.

God does not take off points for past failures
that my friend is a SELF INFLICTED WOUND

Grace is a Gift, it's NOT based on performance.

The same amount of Grace God made available to us at age 9 months
is there at 29 and will be there at 79

He does not subtract Grace for screwing up.. the only one's keepin score is US.

Every time you inhale, it's First and Ten.

With God we ALL get UNLIMITED first downs.


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These articles are for informational purposes only. Contact a licenced counselor if you're in crisis.