06/08/2025
Addiction: The Relevance of your Landing Place.
Two people, let’s call them Alpha and Omega; opposite ends of the spectrum.
Alpha has a pretty good life, a good job and a nice house, likes to party. Drinks a lot and has occasional binges on other substances, weekends mainly. Escapism.
The other, Omega, not such a good life, a tough childhood, didn’t fit in. No job currently, no real skills, small-time dealer – mainly to fund binges. On anything. But lately those binges have been more regular. Heading for daily use probably as addiction takes over.
Alpha is what they call a dabbler, but getting away with it – still showing up for work. Still living in a nice house. Still with good friends. Some dabblers can get away with it but many will fall, eventually. Time will tell and usually time will take its toll.
Against the odds, these two get along pretty well; opposites attracting maybe. They go back a way and use together occasionally.
A txt arrives: “Hey, I’ve got some rock, bro. Keen?”
“Bruh! See you soon.”
They do their thing - they talk - about the good old days mostly, all night; the unlikely chums lost in the amped up world of m**h.
In the morning, Alpha doesn’t get up; calls in and takes a ‘work-from-home day’. Home is nice. Everything anyone could want. Back to work tomorrow. The world is good. For now.
Omega wakes up in a dump; couch-surfing with people with problems, all are users, all escaping; trauma, the key driver for self-medication. The lost people.
Today, Alpha is doing okay, feeling the previous night but okay. His landing place is in good shape. His world is pretty good. He’s getting away with it for now and it may be weeks before he has another dance with Crystal.
Across town, Omega ain’t getting away with anything. His world is grim, a long way from pretty good. And right now all he is thinking about is shooting more M**h. Addiction hits harder when our landing place is broken. Within an hour he’ll call Alpha and ask for a loan.
He’s already ticked up with others and they’ll be looking for some money back, with tax.
Once again, he’ll get the bash. The beginning of the end, this.
Our landing place:
When these two hook up and get ‘high’ – they both share the same escape. Problems disappear to the back room for a while, a strange sort of equality.
When Alpha comes down, the landing pace is, on the surface good. The job, the house, the partner, and a social network that stretches beyond drug users. He is liked. And respected. Successful. Most don’t know about the antics and through their eyes, mostly, he’s livin’ the dream and this landing place does not push anyone out.
Omega’s landing place is horrible, and on the come-down it is dark. Right now it is the last place Omega wants to be.
When your landing place is bleak, the desire to get out of it again is so much stronger.
This is why Omega is an addict and why Alpha is, for now, a dabbler. A regular-but-occasional user. ‘For Now’ are two key words, a comfortable landing place is not an armour against addiction, it is usually only a delaying tactic.
Recovery from addiction comes down to one premise: It is much more than simply stopping the drugs, it means finding a new landing place.
Don’t think of recovery as giving som**hing up.
Think of it taking som**hing up: A new life.
Is it easy? No, it takes real commitment and effort. True that.
Is it worth the effort. Yes, the investment in ourselves pays the richest dividends.
True that too. Yeah, recovery.
