Article February 18, 2002 Issue

Power to heal addiction

By Riley Seay

I HAD BEEN RAISED in a liberal family where smoking and drinking were quite acceptable. But eventually, I found that the fun of smoking and drinking became an addiction, and the addiction was taking over my life.

I tried to stop, but without any success. I would say, "This is the last cigarette I'm going to smoke," only to find myself 15 minutes later rushing down to the drugstore to buy another package just to get me through the night. If I was in a business meeting or at lunch, and someone lit up a cigarette or laid a package of cigarettes on a table, all my thought processes stopped. I couldn't think of anything else. I just looked at the package of cigarettes, or watched others smoking, and I felt helpless.

On top of this, I was also becoming very much aware that drinking was becoming a problem. I can still remember waking up on the weekends and wondering, "How did I get home?" I might remember that I'd been in somebody's apartment or at a party or doing something in the evening, but nothing more. To lose that kind of control was for me extremely degrading.