Short monologue by Nick Stumbo (Sept 2023) reflecting on addiction recovery: he argues that pursuing health requires equal or greater passion and effort than pursuing addiction did, criticizes expectations that short programs (e.g., eight weeks of study, videos, or Bible reading) can undo decades of addiction, and emphasizes the difficulty of long-term change.
It's like swimming upstream. Like, you know, you jump in and the water's taking you. Like, you know. And we all know this who've been in addiction. Like, there were a couple choices we made, but they were really easy choices, and they created, like, more fun, more enjoyment, not realizing all the consequences it was causing. But now we turned around and we're swimming upstream. And it's funny, because I would. I would say that pursuing health takes more passion than it even did when we pursued addiction. And so thinking that in eight weeks, going through a study or watching videos or, you know, doing a reading plan of the Bible, in eight weeks, I'm going to undo 20 years of addiction. Like, if I were to put it in any other context, people would be like, you're. You're a moron. Like, there's no way that's going to happen. And so I think that that's what Dr. Ted's talking about in this one, is that it takes just as much, if not more, probably more effort to then pursue health rather than addiction. And to assume it's going to be easy is crazy.
