This week a news story broke about a woman from Indiana who had a tumor removed from her brain. The tumor, it turns out, was a mass that included hair, teeth and bone. I don't know if that gives you the total creeps, but it certainly does me! It sounds like the makings of a really scary horror movie.
But as quickly as that story broke this article came out clarifying that the tumor was not an embryonic twin that was undeveloped and had lurked in the woman's brain for 26 years. It was actually some form of germ cells that had coalesced into a tumor called a teratoma. I won't pretend to understand all the science behind it but I immediately connected this to recovery.
There have certainly been times in my recovery where I've identified my addict as this separate entity inside of me that did really bad things. Like an evil twin. Personifying my addict was part of the process I went through to understand my behavior that had wreaked havoc on my marriage and derailed my life. But my addict is not an evil twin.
Addiction is a germ growth. It is sin run rampant. And make no mistake, it has teeth. Addiction is as debilitating as any teratoma (the type of tumor discussed in the story in case you didn't click the link above). And left untreated it can be deadly. Understand this. Recovery is the surgery it takes to deal with this creepy, horror show growth that's ruining your life.
And it's a lifelong process, let's make that clear. Many...me included...start recovery as if it's a day surgery. It isn't.
So if you're in the midst of the struggle against your evil twin stop conferring personhood on your addiction and start treating it like the tumor it is. Get into recovery and get serious about finding healing.
