Replace ‘Personality Disorder in addiction’ with ‘Perception Disorder in addiction’. Then imagine an adult who, on entering a roomful of people, has a panic attack. The room is perceived as dangerous, not merely mildly unpleasant, but close to lethal. Others in that room don’t perceive it this way – what’s gone wrong? This is the essence of a Perception Disorder in addiction.
What circumstance could ensure that any and every human being, thrust into a roomful of strangers would feel panic, realistic panic? In what situation would what the sufferer is telling us make better sense to us than it does to them? Suppose that the person afflicted perceived themselves as very small and entirely weak – just as they did when they were two years old – their emotions would then fit this to a ‘T’. Imagine being 2 feet tall, toddling rather than walking, while being outrageously weaker than these gigantic adults around you – who would not feel the need for reliable adult allies? And in their absence – terror. Terror is being perceived where none now exists
So assuming that inside every panicking adult there is a two year old failing to grow up – what would you most need to do? What would it take for a two year old not to perceive the room as dangerous – quasi-lethal? The answer is both obvious, and immediately effective – they would need, and you could readily supply, the healing hand of kindness. Recovery is supporting the rational mind to defeat the irrational addict mind.
What circumstance could ensure that any and every human being, thrust into a roomful of strangers would feel panic, realistic panic? In what situation would what the sufferer is telling us make better sense to us than it does to them? Suppose that the person afflicted perceived themselves as very small and entirely weak – just as they did when they were two years old – their emotions would then fit this to a ‘T’. Imagine being 2 feet tall, toddling rather than walking, while being outrageously weaker than these gigantic adults around you – who would not feel the need for reliable adult allies? And in their absence – terror. Terror is being perceived where none now exists
So assuming that inside every panicking adult there is a two year old failing to grow up – what would you most need to do? What would it take for a two year old not to perceive the room as dangerous – quasi-lethal? The answer is both obvious, and immediately effective – they would need, and you could readily supply, the healing hand of kindness. Recovery is supporting the rational mind to defeat the irrational addict mind.
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