Addiction

I think I now know
Where addiction comes from.
A kind of stress.
Between what you must do
And what you are able to do.
There is a shortfall.
A no-win situation.
You can't fix it.
And you can't cope with it.

No way to leave
And no way to overcome.

Any source of relief
That helps you break free
Even for a little while
Is most welcome.

Sometimes it's alcohol.
Sometimes it's sex.
But it could be anything.

For as long as you are stuck
In that sort of situation --
Unable to resolve
Or leave it once and for all
You end up making do
With what relief you get.

From there it's just details.

Does your means of relief
Make the situation worse?

Or maybe, most perversely
It really does help you
Do more of what you must.
But not enough to overcome.

Some outsider points
At what you're doing for relief.
Calls it an addiction
And insists you be rid of it.

They get to sound so pure and moral.
But what they've really done
Is demonized a symptom
Called it a cure
And missed the point.

The trick is to find the help
To overcome the situation
That created the need
For the means of relief
That turned into an addiction.


	1 March 2000
	by Bill Cattey