I Finally Found Some Success, Yet It Only Led To Another Relapse

Photo Credit: Unsplash — Jon Tyson

Rock-bottom is a myth. There’s always a trap door ready to drop you even further down. And trust me, it’s a long, long, fall. . .

Addiction Doesn’t Care if You’re Superman, Bill Gates, or The Homeless Guy You Passed At Starbucks This Morning: It can, and has, taken complete and utter control over the lives of millions of Americans — just in the past couple years alone.

I don’t even want to ponder the numbers if we look at the figures worldwide

Money and success won’t get you clean.

In fact, for me, success (mostly financial success) served to magnify the issue rather than help subdue it.

I got used to being able to buy as many drugs and as much alcohol as I desired. In the end, I wound up burning through my life savings.

Boo Hoo for me, I know. Let’s all throw a big pity party for me, right. . .

That’s why I’m writing this, right? In order to gain your symphony, perhaps make myself feel better.

Us addicts are consistently selfish if nothing else

Naaa — I tried that already. Didn’t work.

I wrote about my woes, hoping against all odds that I could conjure up enough pity to get some reads. Maybe even a follower or three.

I got none.

The strange thing about this time in my life was the fact that I was sober. I had accumulated over 1.5 years. I had also started my own business, making more money than I had ever thought possible for someone like me.

That hole was still there. The money and “success” just wouldn’t fill it.

I was still utterly restless, irritable, and most of all, discontent

That leads me to the point of this short article. I’m not here to write out a 20 page thesis on how to overcome addiction and find your path in life.

Quite the opposite actually.

Instead, I want to try to help someone, even if it’s only one person, open their minds and discover that you can’t patch the hole us addicts have with material success.

The foundation must be torn up, rebuilt, and then laid with enough defenses so should that 500lb gorilla come back you can stand a fighting chance.

To wrap this up, please remember this if nothing else. If you haven’t done the work on yourself from the inside out, there’s no amount of nice clothes or fancy jobs in the world to make you sustainably happy.

Some people might last.

Hell, they may find that focusing on material success and elevating their social status was the only thing that keeps them sober.

If so, then good for you. I’m glad it worked out.

On the other hand, if you’re anything like me, a bottom of the barrel junkie and sloppy alcoholic when out there using, I promise you that no matter how good it feels now — in the end you’ll find only misery.

Typically, that misery is going to be much, much worse than it was the last time you had jumped back on the wagon.

Tasting success when you’re not ready for it is just as harmful as taking one single drink each morning.

Thanks for reading. I hope that all who find this story gains something from it.