7 Step Guide to a Life of Substance Abuse

While it is probable that no one consciously sets out to create a life of substance abuse, those who end up addicted to substances are choosing certain thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that will likely end up leading to some form of substance abuse - drugs, alcohol, nicotine, food, junk food, sugar, and/or caffeine. Since substance abuse is the result of these choices, if substance abuse is part of your life-style, why not do them consciously instead of unconsciously?

Substance abuse, even when there is a genetic factor, is the result of self-abandonment. Your genes do not determine your choices. Here are the seven major self-abandoning choices you can make to make sure you end up substance addicted:

1. Ignore Your Feelings

Your feelings are your inner guidance system, instantly letting you know when you are thinking or behaving in ways that are supporting your highest good and when you are not. Your painful feelings of anxiety, depression, hurt, anger, guilt, shame, emptiness, aloneness, and so on are your inner guidance system letting you know that you are very off course in your thinking. By ignoring them, you get to continue indulging yourself in thoughts and behaviors that are causing your pain. You will then turn to substances to numb out the pain, and can indulge yourself even more!

2. Judge Yourself

Every time you judge yourself as being stupid, a jerk, not good enough, a failure, bad, ugly, unworthy, and so on, you make yourself feel awful. Then, of course, you need to ignore the fact that you are the one making yourself feel awful! Once again, you now have a good reason to turn to substances to numb out the pain.

3. Lie to Yourself

Scaring yourself by telling yourself all the bad things that can happen to you is a sure way to create fear, anxiety, or depression. If you are not 100% certain that the bad things are going to happen, then you are lying to yourself by telling yourself that they are going to happen. Once again, you then have a really good reason to numb out your painful feelings with substances!

4. Give Yourself up

When you give yourself up, you are going along with what someone else wants you to do or believe rather than standing in your own truth.  When you give yourself up, you are trying to control how someone else feels about you rather than taking responsibility for your own feelings. Since giving yourself up feels awful, and you certainly don't want to feel these awful feelings and know that you are the one causing them, be sure to numb out with substances.

5. Make Others Responsible for Your Feelings

Why take care of yourself and your own feelings when you can try to get someone else to do it for you? Maybe if you get needy enough, sad enough, pathetic enough, angry enough, blaming enough, or give yourself up enough, you can get someone else to do it for you. By trying to get someone else to take care of your feelings of worth and happiness, you are abandoning yourself and letting yourself know that you don’t think you are worth taking care of. The resulting feelings of shame and unworthiness need to be numbed out with your substance addictions!

6. Turn to More Addictions, Not to Your Higher Power

In addition to turning to your substance addictions, but sure to turn to other addictions to numb out your feelings - TV, spending, gambling, sex, porn, Internet, work, anger, blame, and so on. By focusing outside yourself to fill the emptiness and avoid the pain, instead of opening to your Higher Power, you can now justify all your addictions!

7. Denial

Well, it's too late now, but you really don't want to read this article! To continue your substance addictions, you need to stay in denial that you are the one causing your pain. However, since you have already this article, you can certainly blot out your awareness with your favorite substance addiction!

In addition, be certain NOT to practice Inner Bonding, as you will not be able to stay in denial, which is essential to continuing your substance abuse!

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