The Choice is Yours: Are You Powerless or Powerful?

Have you ever heard someone say, “The choice is yours to make”?

At one point in your life, you have been forced to make a decision. Maybe it was where to eat dinner, what to eat for dinner, whether or not to break up with your significant other, or to stay at your job or leave.

We are faced with hundreds, thousands, of decisions in life every single day. Decisions are just part of life. Unfortunately, there are times when we cannot be in control and we have to let someone else decide for us.

But…

There are also several times in life when we just choose not to make a decision. We choose to just leave the cards on the table and deal with it later.

Compare this thought to your addiction – is someone forcing you to stay an addict or are you deciding that for yourself? Even if you just aren’t making an effort to fix it, ultimately, you are deciding to stay sedentary with your addiction.

Each day that you wake up and decide to continue letting the addiction control your life, you are ultimately deciding to be powerless.

Wow…that hits you right where it hurts, doesn’t it?

Why would you ever decide to be powerless?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93TUSjXhht0

Well, the thing is you probably don’t think about it like that right off the bat. You are not literally choosing to be powerless, but you are choosing not to be powerful and overcome the addiction.

Free stock photo of person, woman, girl, addiction

So, it is time to wake up and choose to be powerful.

Did you know you can do that? You have the ability to choose to change your own story.

Choose recovery. Choose powerful. Choose yourself.

Start by admitting to yourself that you have problem, then decide you are ready to make a change, then start working on it.

Part of being powerful is deciding to better yourself. Part of being powerful is deciding to make a change.

You have to decide what is more important to you and decide to follow through.

Part of power is following through.

Look for treatment options that you think will work best for you – conventional or nonconventional. Then, reach out to those people and make that first step.

You will be surprised how much power you feel when you just simply take that first step to making a difference.

Don’t wait any longer. Your future is at stake. Start today. Choose to be powerful and not powerless.

Let’s Talk Money: How Much Does Addiction Cost?

Oftentimes, there is quite a bit of social stigma toward those who don’t have a job and those who are now homeless…

Society’s first assumption is that they are lazy and are an addict of some sort – drugs, alcohol, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWrfd9gvAs8

So, it is always in the back of our minds that drugs and alcohol cost money and that addiction can be costly, but what exactly does addiction cost?

The Big Picture

Overall, in the United States, addiction carries a social cost of roughly $185 billion each year. Now consider how much each person is spending. If the alcohol or drugs cost $10 or $20 each time…

Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt…

So, $15 – we will meet in the middle – and let’s say they buy their substance of choice once each day, seven days per week. That comes out to $105 each week, and that is being conservative. Oftentimes, drugs cost much more than that and addicts are purchasing much more than once each day.

To put that into perspective, $105 is what most people pay for an entire month of cable, what some people spend on an entire week of groceries, or about two weeks of food and diapers for a newborn.

There is so much more you could do with $105+…

But, that isn’t all.

Sadly, drugs and alcohol don’t just cost you monetarily though…

Addiction can cost you your family – spouse, kids, parents, aunts and uncles.

As addiction creeps in, you might find yourself acting in ways you never thought you would. Hurting people in ways you never even imagined.

The Ultimate Price.

And ultimately, the most expensive part of addiction is your life. Whether it be from an overdose or from the physical and mental ailments you develop as a result of the addiction, ultimately the addiction can end your life.

So many addicts think that will never be them, but somehow, they find themselves on the edge of overdose several times before it finally just happens.

Or, the addiction might just become so overwhelming that an addict feels the need to take their own life.

Free stock photo of black-and-white, dead, death, cemetery

Regardless of which of these matters the most to you – money, family, or your life – the point is that addiction is not free. The costs go well beyond just the initial money needed to purchase the substance of choice.

Addiction is a disease that will infect all aspects of your life.