#also interestingly I’ve heard fewer addicts refer to it as a problem and more people who love addicts do so | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shortqueershakespeare · 20 days ago

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Everything is a coping mechanism and the problem comes when the pain of the problem outweighs the effectiveness of the coping mechanism.

You then have two choices, reduce the pain of the problem or increase the coping mechanism.

That’s where the toxicity of a coping mechanism comes in, whether it’s alcohol, self harm, toxic relationships, eating disorders, gambling, eventually if you increase use of the toxic coping mechanism, the consequences of that will outweigh the initial problem and the coping mechanism will become the primary problem.

But there’s no fixing the coping mechanism without (a) replacing it with something healthy and (b) addressing the underlying issue, or the addiction will just begin to a new thing, to try and solve the initial problem.

#personal #personal post #having thoughts about addiction and unhealthy coping mechanism #there’s a reason I referred to self harm as an addiction #addiction #alcohol #self harm #gambling #ed tw #tw ed #eating disorder mention #eating disorder tw #tw eating disorder #tw gambling #gambling tw #alcohol tw #tw alcohol #self harm tw #tw self harm #thinking a lot about this lately #based off a conversation I had when I was 15 that is imprinted on my brain #that might have stopped me starting self harm if I wasn’t already deeply addicted #and also John robins discussing alcohol #he often if not always refers to it as the solution #and I think people are so reluctant to engage with that #because framing it as a problem means it’s fixable #framing it as a solution means there’s something else at play #also interestingly I’ve heard fewer addicts refer to it as a problem and more people who love addicts do so #and I wonder whether that’s because it’s easier to intervene with a perceived problem #than to tell someone that you need to take away their solution

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