- by Andrea Donaldson

"Why don't addicts feel guilty about the way they hurt their families?" oh they DO!

When in active addiction the majority of addicts don’t intentionally hurt their loved ones. They have something going on inside of them that they have lost all control over.

The voices in their head are there and they are loud and obnoxious and the only way to shut them up is to use.
It’s incredibly scary honestly.  See, the thing is they “feel” when they are using but the feelings aren’t happy. They are scared, angry, sad...feel guilt, shame, regret, etc.. so while you may think they are doing this to hurt YOU, that’s not the case. They are killing themselves over gult. They use to block out the pain and disruptions life has thrown at them.

Not everyone is lucky enough to never have to experience this hell. If you are lucky enough to have never had to experience addiction then be thankful.
When we come into recovery and start to feel all these “feelings” again it’s very overwhelming and we don’t need constant reminders of how much we messed up, we already know this.

So instead of trying to knock them down, help build them back.
They don’t want you to feel hurt and sad. They just want things to be the way they are supposed to be. The way things were before addiction entered their lives.

The more you educate yourself on addiction the more you will understand.

Don’t be afraid to ask a recovering addict questions because we can likely answer them better then anyone or any book can because we have the real life experience.

This stigma needs to STOP.

Andrea is a an addict who found recovery on July 30th 2015.