Using drugs probably started out a way for you to handle your problems. As time goes by, however, drugs can become much more than that. They stop being something your do and become the focus of your life. That’s what addiction really involves, that whatever substance you abuse is the most important thing in your life. It becomes more important than friends; more important than family; more important than work and even more important than your health. It can reach the point where your drug of choice is more important than your life. In fact, your drug of choice becomes your life to the point where absolutely nothing else matters.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Drugs don’t have to be the most important thing in your life. You can change your whole life. You can restore order to your life and reorganize your priorities. As long as your abuse of alcohol or other drugs continues, your life will be unmanageable. It may not be what you expected, but using drugs will make your life even more unmanageable. While you remained a victim of addiction, your only real interest was in getting the drug you believed you needed. Once you enter into recovery, you’ll have to find a new purpose for your life.
What purpose? That’s up to you. Some people dedicate themselves to helping others escape from slavery to drugs, serving as mentors for others who are entering into recovery. Parents, once they enter into recovery, may choose to make caring for their children the focus of their life. Others, knowing themselves to have been blessed by God with sobriety, may want to become ministers of some kind, reaching out to the poor and suffering. Once you have made progress in your recovery, you’ll need to determine what it is that you really want to do with your life.
What you choose to do with your life is less important than that you do choose something. Teacher, counselor, minister, parent or friend are really just different ways to accomplish something meaningful with your life. Even aside from the roles mentioned above, there are a myriad of ways in which you can help to make the world a better place.
As the saying goes: “Don’t just sit there, do something.” Do something, do anything. Your life is valuable. Do something with it. Make a difference, a positive difference, in the lives of those around you.