Too Many Catastrophes Can Lead To Change
If you’re feeling discouraged, frightened, and hurt right now, you’re not alone. Catastrophe after catastrophe in our nation have resulted in greater, not less, chaos. Greater incompetence, not more efficiency and caring solutions have been the sad result. The onslaught of tragedies like deadly hurricanes and fires, addiction/opioid deaths, and school shootings is negatively impacting every single one of us. The cutting of desperately needed resources is negatively impacting every single one of us. The demonization of a wide variety of people we love and need to make us a powerful nation is impacting every single one of us. It takes a lot to make me cry. I’m crying now. There’s an analogy coming. Tears have never worked.
We’re Exactly Like A Family Caught In Addiction
In addiction little by little families are influenced by to mention but a few: gaslighting, manipulation, character changes, and secrets that confuse reality. This is also happening nationally right now with political hypocrisy, fake news and denial. As a nation, we are operating with the dysfunction of a family caught up in addiction. Make no mistake about that. The Russians have influenced our elections and beliefs, affairs and cover-ups at the highest level are accepted. We have come to accept what was formerly unacceptable. This is exactly the way addiction takes families down. Call it gaslighting. Call it Denial. Call it Narcissism. The end result is unimaginable suffering for millions and millions of people.
Denial Breeds Dysfunction
The family in addiction is manipulated by promises, lies, threats, one crisis after another. People long for just one single day of peace, and peace doesn’t come. Confusion about right and wrong, denial that behavior or actions or policies are wrong, blaming others and taking no responsibility are all symptoms of addiction. As politicians keep doing and saying the same things over and over, as citizens we can’t expect different results. Like families caught up in untreated addiction with no place to go for help, our country is unable to cope on any level.
How Do We Recover
How do we address dysfunction wherever it is? In families, we stop keeping secrets. We stop thinking things are going to get better by themselves. We stop enabling the people who lie to us or hurt us. We get the facts and act on the facts. We don’t accept blame for things we didn’t do. We make others take responsibility for the things they’ve done wrong. We examine our own motives and see what part we’re playing in the dysfunction. We don’t accept the unacceptable. Period. We end the hypocrisy. The people have the power to stop wars, demand equality, and get help for AIDS and Breast Cancer. We have the power to fix many different kinds of issues when we want to.
Transformational Change Occurs When People Unconditionally Demand It
For decades we’ve been sending addicts to prison. We haven’t treated addicts either in prison or in our communities. We haven’t taught families how to cope with addiction. We haven’t given accessible resources to those looking for help. Addiction treatment protocols are outdated, and don’t work. People get out of prison and do the same things all over again. Kids in high school aren’t taught anything useful about substances, colleges don’t seem to care about the safety of their undergraduates. All of these components and many more have allowed addiction to worsen.
Are we ready to address what’s wrong in government? When we’re ready to do that, we’ll be ready to address real solutions for addiction, as well.
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