we faced a real dilemma concerning our personal identity.

The addiction itself could no longer deliver that formerly reliable, thoroughly engrossing sexual and emotional return.

fill the emptiness within us

This shift in our attitude from need to hope brought us to another fundamental milestone in our recovery.

“If you get more, then everything will fall into place.”

we would inevitably have to question the whole foundation of our self-image, our personal identity.

our former selves would have to die, or at least risk dying, so that a new self, free of the addiction, could live.

times a wide range of strategies to control our behavior

this network of potential intrigues had constituted a kind of safety net, or security, for me.