I kind of think that "self" is what people are really addicted to, and that addiction takes different FORMS. It may appear to be alcoholism or cigs or sex or coke, but the real addiction is to one's own being. Alcohol or whatever it is merely provides a representation, a contextual field, in which that addiction is experienced.

Jul 30, 2010 -- 9:35AM, David106 wrote:

.....or maybe it's LOVE that people are really addicted to. I just feel that addictions have a deeper source than the apparent object of addiction. It's like an addiction to a SPIRITUAL reality, one's true self, or ONENESS with God.....there must be some higher part of the individual that they're fixated on.

Hi Dave,

I found this You tube revealing and learned a little bit more about some of my own disorders. Something I have to keep the focus on to recover.

"or maybe it's LOVE that people are really addicted to"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgCBSxjOllw&feat...

Jul 31, 2010 -- 4:07PM, andrewcyrus wrote:

Jul 30, 2010 -- 9:35AM, David106 wrote:

.....or maybe it's LOVE that people are really addicted to. I just feel that addictions have a deeper source than the apparent object of addiction. It's like an addiction to a SPIRITUAL reality, one's true self, or ONENESS with God.....there must be some higher part of the individual that they're fixated on.

 

Hi Dave,

I found this You tube revealing and learned a little bit more about some of my own disorders. Something I have to keep the focus on to recover.

"or maybe it's LOVE that people are really addicted to"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgCBSxjOllw&feat...

 

 

 

I believe personally that people are addicted to the (idea) of love. The want and dersire of being loved yet when it comes down to it most (not all) cannot handle love relationships because they don't love themselves and/or the are emotionally unstable

Sep 29, 2011 -- 4:51PM, astral_tourist wrote:

Hi Andrew,

I am familiar with narcissists and narcissism. I am not sure if most addicts/alcoholics are true narcissists as defined by the mental health field. I have discussed this with a friend who is in recovery, and happens to be a psychiatrist...he says that true narcissists rarely seek treatment. They usually don't make it.

For me, I was self-obsessed, self-centered...and as you have probably read many times, I was an "egomaniac with an inferiority complex." Step work with my sponsor...especially steps 2-4, deflated that ego and helped to remove me as the center of my universe. I was not, nor am I a narcissist. Selfish, yes, but I am not the same person I was when I was an active addict/alcoholic. I care, and my actions reflect this. I have had that "psychic change" that you read about in the Big Book...I am grateful today. Thanks...

"he says that true narcissists rarely seek treatment. They usually don't make it."

I see them come into meetings court ordered, and they struggle with the steps. The prisons in Nevada are over crowded. Two places on earth that deal with the narcissist and his pre-occupations with self preservation. One is prison and the others is the graveyard. Two institutional icons totally devoted to self preservation.