What Do I Think About That?

The Power of Addiction and the Addiction of Power: Gabor Mate I watched two videos today.  One was from the Canadian physician and author  Gabor Maté . He spoke on not just the negative consequences of addiction, but why addiction seems to be able to hold such inescapable and even illogical to the point of death power of a person. His definitions of addiction was noteworthy:  “ Addiction is about filling internal emptiness from the outside . ” “ Addiction is any behavior that gives temporary relief but causes long-term problems and pain ” It is from this position and understanding of addiction that Dr. Gabor took direct aim at his audience and listeners.  “ We judge the drug addict instead of recognizing our own addiction to oil, to consumerism, to power because that makes us uncomfortable. So we separate them and say “You’re not like us ” “ Let’s not look to people in power to change things, because the people in power are often the most empty. We must change things ourselves and wit

Preface The following is a retelling of several events in my life. I have not tried to be exhaustive in either the recounting of all my traumas or even in the highlighting of the most significant parts. There are many very happy memories from my childhood and adulthood that I have left out, including relationships with people. I have tried to represent the happy memories and the masks I was wearing with the pictures throughout. At one point in my life, I believed that the way to overcome trauma and suffering was to ignore it and pretend it didn’t exist. I have since come to learn that the path to healing and power is through the trauma, through radical acceptance, which means feeling it in its fullness and leaving it where it belongs. The following is a result of me doing just that. I intend for it to give others the permission and encouragement to do the same for themselves.  Chapter 1: The Hold Up I am standing next to my mom in the living room. Fifteen and feeling like a protector,