Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions

by Russell Brand

The reason you must tackle your addiction no matter how moderate it may seem or whether it be socially sanctioned is it will, in the end, fail you. Because the drive, the fuel, the impetus behind it is legitimate and its goals are legitimate: connection. In the end it will not settle for a simulacrum. It will be found out. That’s why you’re lucky if you’re addicted to crack or smack, they are fast haemorrhaging, fast failing systems. They provide anaesthetic and distraction but are so bloody medically unsound that they are quickly exposed as dupes. Sex and food can sustain a longer masquerade. Now admittedly you see fewer people hunched over in doorways on ice cream than you do on meth but anyone who knows someone who suffers from an eating disorder will tell you that the sufferer is similarly derelict. And because what we are dealing with is a spiritual condition – a post-religious spiritual calling – the inner condition is what we must address.