I will give you what I find the answer this through working with people with addictions. We choose addictions because we are being controlled by outside forces and feel that we are no longer fully within our power. We want to be in control of ourselves. When we fully feel we are within our own power, we can live without addictions. But when we feel controlled by someone else, be that a spouse, a boss, a life situation, a norm given to us by society, well, from any place, we choose to smoke or drink or some other behavior that we do control, or at least feel we control. It is a bad way for us to regain some control over our own lives. No one is going to tell you that you can't have some coffee. You have freedom in coffee, you use it whenever you decide to use it, you have freedom of control over your coffee use, it is something you decide to do for yourself.
This might be a hard concept to grasp because it is quite hidden and we don’t like to look at control issues at all. And it seems like an addiction is not something you are controlling, and certainly not a good way to regain control over your own life. But that is what an addiction is. Sometimes as with alcohol, it is to escape from that outside control, to take control of yourself by drinking and hiding out from the control of others. It does not matter if one is really under the control of some outside force or not. It only matters if one feels as though he or she is under the control of some outside force.
Some people willingly give control away. They are not troubled by it. But some people feel robbed of themselves when under the control of outside forces. Their attempt to regain some kind of control over their own lives is to begin a habit that they fully control, often an addictive habit.
So are these people just an addictive personality type? I don't think so. These people are just more sensitive to their own sense of freedom and choose not to be controlled by outside forces. Yet they are controlled. How to break the habit? Find out what is controlling you and get away from it.
Aho
Shaman Elder Maggie www.shamanelder.com
