Something happens.

In my work with clients who are striving toward recovery, one of the challenges they face is finding alternative ways to deal with positive, negative, and neutral feelings. For much of their history in using, they turned to substances whether they were happy, sad, or bored... not just because of one particular situation.

I remember my first group of substance abuse clients... I was an intern in graduate school, completely green to the therapy community, and as different as could be from the client population as possible. One week, the question I had been dreading was asked... had I ever used drugs, and if not, how could I help them. At the time, I wasn't prepared for the answer, and I looked like a fool. Flash forward to a few months ago. The same question was asked. I turned it around and asked why the client wanted to know, and his answer surprised me. He said that I sounded like I knew how difficult his road had been. 

While I've never been down his road before, I've been down my own road. A road that has lead to decisions of wanting to forget. Wanting to celebrate. And wanting to make something happen.

Food.
Mindless television.
Shopping.
The internet.
Relationships.
Exercise.
Substances.

Unhealthy choices don't always come in the form of a drink or a drug. And sometimes more acceptable behaviors can be even more dangerous because they can be sneaky. I try to think about things in terms of this question... Am I engaging in this behavior to alter my feelings? If so, it might warrant a follow-up self-evaluation.

Food isn't bad. Television isn't bad. Shopping isn't bad. And neither are the others. But when we do them in excess and to alter our feelings, they are taken out of their intended context, and can turn into monsters... or turn us into people we aren't meant to be.