Ten NFL Strategies To Help You Win At Recovery #01
My good friend Rob and I got a great deal on some Arizona Cardinals tickets for last Sunday’s game against the Greenbay Packers. If you missed the game, then you missed one heck of a game.
This was my first time at the University of Phoenix stadium and my first time at an NFL game. I was not disappointed in the least bit. After the game, I started reflecting on how the process of recovery carries some similarities to the strategies involved in winning a football game. Given that this football season is about to end and the playoffs are only going to get more interesting; I have decided to write a ten-part series on these important recovery strategies.
If you or someone you know struggles with an addiction to food, alcohol, drugs, sex (or whatever else), then I hope this blog series challenges you to look at the recovery process in a different light.
Strategy #1: Join the Team
In order to win at recovery, you have to make up your mind (sometimes daily) and choose to play either for the relapse team or the recovery team. It’s tough to win at recovery when ambivalence has you scoring at both ends of the field.
I have worked with many eating disorder patients who come into inpatient treatment feeling exhausted by their attempts to manage an eating disorder. Yet, an addiction is not something that’s manageable, trainable or tamed. Most addicts admit that while the addiction gives a promise of control, the individual actually ends up having less and less personal control. One of the biggest lies of an addiction is that you can control it, manage it or walk away from it at any given point.
Unknowingly, sometimes family members end up accommodating the addiction by learning to live with ineffective behaviors at home. “If she’s gonna binge, then I’d rather her do it at home where I’ll know she’s safe,” or “If you’re gonna drink and get high, then I’d rather you do it at home so that you don’t risk getting arrested for a DUI.” While these type of rationalizations seem to make sense for some people on the surface, these types of enabling statements keep both the addict and the family stuck in the ambivalence cycle and thus never really get ahead in the recovery process.
At some point, the line must be drawn in the sand. At some point, the addiction must become unacceptable if the addict is going to fight for him/herself. This isn’t to say that the recovery journey won’t be messy – because it is. This isn’t to say that once you decide to fight for your recovery that there will not be slips, falls or fumbles along the way – because there will be.
However, if you are still playing for both the recovery and the relapse team, then I want to encourage you to pick a team. In my experience, as long as you keep scoring at both ends of the field, you are likely to never fully experience the type of progress and success in treatment or recovery that you are hoping to see.
Spiritual Integration
What does the Bible say about this concept?No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other… Matthew 6:24 ESV
The word serve indicates the work of a slave who is the sole property of one master. While in context this verse is talking about serving God or money, the same inner struggle occurs when a person’s loyalties are divided between relapse and recovery.
Copyright © 2009 Cesar G. Gamez, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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