I've had a lot of conversations in recent days about addiction. Yet there is one addiction that is rarely discussed as part of a person's personal recovery process. This addiction I am talking about goes hand-in-hand with most others. It is the addiction to drama, crisis, and chaos.
Don't misunderstand me. You can be addicted to drama, crisis, and chaos and not "yet" be fully addicted to some particular substance or process. I see teenagers who often fall into this category in my practice. They may only be "experimenting" with alcohol and/or drugs...but they are already close and intimate friends with drama, crisis, and chaos.
Drama, crisis, and chaos to me is best understood as the edge of a very large axe. When people are addicted to it...they are not just touching the axe every once in a while...but riding it regularly like a crotch rocket.
You know the old saying, "Better to live in the hell you already know than the hell you don't.." For those who have lived with drama, crisis, and chaos from an early age, it's just something they have gotten used to and comfortably familiar with. So they ride it...and they don't get off...or don't really know how to get off.
So that's my job. Helping people get off that rocket and learn to live without their daily doses of drama, crisis, and chaos. Sometimes they fight me AS IF their living in hell is a good thing we all should aspire to achieve....and sometimes they leave me saying I don't know what I'm talking about. But I do. And I know they do too. They just aren't ready yet. So I keep praying that one day they will be...
