I should note---this is giving addicts A LOT of grace. By no means am I saying any of this to justify anything they do to continue their charade.

More so, I am aiming to say to an addict that they aren't fooling anyone.

The truth comes out eventually.

I encourage everyone who loves or knows an addict to support them if they ever come clean to you. If that is something that you are able to do. For some people, it isn't, and that's okay, too.

Everyone gets hurt to some degree when addiction is as at play.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

The self-preservation tactics of an addict who refuses to work on their addiction is what leads to these things.

And you know who ends up suffering?

Everyone.

It isn't anyone else's job to fix the addiction but the addict's. And that is a hard pill to swallow. It's even harder to ask for help.

It feels like a gut punch when the addict acts out again and again. But, it isn't them making the conscious decision to hurt anyone. It, frankly, isn't on their radar--until it is. And then their addiction makes them do the things like lying, gaslighting, and hiding. So they don't have to FACE it.

It doesn't mean the addict doesn't care about the people they may be hurting (others or themselves). This is something I've had to learn and process when thinking about other ways people's addictions have impacted my life.
But I do know that it feels that way.

Now, I do currently vape, and I still have to hide it because of work, and what I do for a living doesn't coincide with my profession.
But, the fact remains the same about an addiction.
Addicts will lie, hide, gaslight, and go to great lengths to justify their actions or not seek help.

But the lengths I went to hide that I smoked? I lied. I hid. I created elaborate excuses to try to get money when I was broke as fuck and was out of smokes. I even *considered* (didn't do it) breaking into my sons' piggy banks at one point to get my fix. Which was when I realized I needed to stop.

How do I know? Well, I've been addicted to nicotine for a while.
"But, Jess, nicotine, really?"
Yes. Really. Some of the things I did when I smoked cigarettes are no different than those that other addicts use to hide theirs.
I knew the cigarettes were harming my health and caused me shame.

*sigh* one of these days I'll find someone who looks at me like you're looking at that Monster 😜

Awwwwwww!!!!! BB!!!!!!!! 👻💜💀

Hahaha

I'm glad it was only a one-time lesson for you. For some, they don't learn the first or even second time.

I'm sorry....
That makes sense--it can definitely burn a person.

But, he listened to the others who saw nothing but his greatness in their eyes. He let their influence and choruses of, "yes!!!" persuade him to go forward with hijacking Xmas.
Had he been blown to tiny pieces, Sally would have been totally alone.

There's a moral: All that glitters, isn't gold.

I will say the very end of the song I don't like. The whole "no one else is gonna love you" comes across toxic af. So if I ever do this at karaoke, I won't be doing that part

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