An analogy

Active addiction is like noticing a pothole at the end of your driveway that you have no idea how to fix, so you grab your hose and fill it with water. Then at least know one will know bad it actually is. Bad thing about water is it drains quickly and what you don’t know is each time you fill it when the water drains it deepens and widens the hole. Slowly but surely the hole gets larger and larger and requires more and more water. When it’s filled up it still doesn’t look like anything more than small pothole, but you know the truth. Soon you’re filling the hole with so much water so often it becomes completely exhausting. You have no idea what to do. You think “This hole is going to ruin my whole driveway!” Finally at your wits end, you tell someone “There’s a huge hole in my driveway, I’m afraid I’ve only been making it worse and I have no idea what to do”. You show them the hole and they recommend a concrete guy they know to fix it. You call the guy, tell him what’s going on and he comes and helps you fix the hole and tells you what to do next time you notice a pothole. Addiction is just like this. Except the driveway is you. There’s a hole in you and you keep filling it over and over with drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, whatever feels good in the moment without realizing the damage it’s causing. You keep filling that hole with nothing of true substance and eventually the hole grows; it takes more and more to just appear normal. Eventually addiction will ruin your entire life unless you acknowledge that there is a hole that you don’t know what to do with and ask someone for help. Without help we keep turning to what we know and what we know will end up destroying us.