I want to talk to you today. Not at you. To you.
You’ve been doing good. Maybe six months. Maybe longer. Maybe just a few weeks. But you were doing it. And then something happened — an argument, a disappointment, a moment where everything you’ve been holding together just cracked. And now you’re sitting somewhere by yourself thinking about picking up again.
I’m not going to tell you that’s wrong. I’m going to tell you I understand it.
Because here’s what happened before. You used, and it worked — for a minute. It numbed the pain. It took the edge off. You felt better. But then the high left, and the pain was still there. And you found out you needed more to get back to that same place. And more after that. And eventually the thing that was supposed to help you became the thing that was destroying you.
That’s not a moral failure. That’s a cycle. And you can break it.
But here’s what I’ve learned in almost thirty years of working with people — we spend a lot of time talking about the addiction. And we need to. But what we really need to address is what’s behind it. The root. The wound. The thing you’ve been trying to cover up.
The mask.
Your pain is real. I will never tell you it’s not. Whatever happened to you — whatever you’re carrying — that is real and it matters. But using is not the answer. It never was. It was just the only tool you had at the time.
You have other tools now. You have people who care about you. You have a God who sees exactly where you are right now — in that car, in that room, in that moment — and He hasn’t walked away. He’s not disgusted. He’s not done with you. He’s waiting for you to look up and say — I need help.
That’s not weakness. That’s the bravest thing you’ll ever do.
My friend, if you’re in that place right now — don’t pick up. Pick up the phone instead. Call somebody. Call me. I mean that.
You don’t have to go back to who you were. The pain underneath is where the real work is — and you don’t have to do that work alone.
There is hope for you. Right where you are. Right now.
Frank Wyatt Trauma-Informed Life Coach | Fairborn, Ohio frankwyatt@gmail.com | (937) 732-5868