Counting the Cost: The Cost of Addiction

As the addict struggles this week, it is time to step back and count costs. What is the cost of continuing down the path of acting out? What is the cost of addiction?

In the First Step, addicts make the following acknowledgment:

"We admitted we were powerless over addictive behavior --- that our lives had become unmanageable."

Part of the unmanageability is the costs associated with acting: emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual costs. The addict, as an exercise, attempted once in the past to calculate the financial cost of his addiction. For this addict, the cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000.

Past costs of addiction for this addict: loss of work (twice), loss of a marriage, estrangement from children, loss of self-worth.

Humbled from these costs, the addict embarked on a program of recovery. The addict's program included both 12-Step meetings and group counseling in a Christian recovery environment.



Lately, the addict has entered another period of struggle with acting-out. Acting-out has become an almost every day occurrence and the addict is a bit scared. It is as if the addict has forgot about the costs of addiction. It is as if the addict has turned his back on all the lessons of recovery. It is as if the addict has traded in growth, friendship, and support for that fleeting and diminishing moment of pleasure brought on by acting-out.

Insanity pursues the addict.

So this morning the addict began to think seriously about costs. What is acting-out costing the addict today?

This week alone has been costly for the addict. Acting-out has meant 10-15 hours of lost productivity at the office (putting the addict farther behind in his work, creating stress, and burdening the addict with shame and remorse). Acting-out caused the addict to be late in picking up his youngest daughter from daycare. Acting out led the addict to lie to friends and family this week. Acting out pushed the addict into isolation when he was having his evening with the Chatty Chatty Princess. Acting out caused the addict to ignore phone calls from his children from his first marriage.

And the addict should not fool himself any longer: If it continues, acting out will cause the addict to lose his job. And losing his job because of continuing addictive behavior will lead to the loss of a second marriage.

These are very real and very dire consequences. And the addict ignores them daily.

At this point in recovery, the addict is back to Step One:

The addict's is powerless over his addictive behavior -- the addict's life has become unmanageable.