The Addictive System

The addictive system is like two interdigitating cogwheels, constantly in motion and interacting.
	On the upper left wheel is the BELIEF SYSTEM. All of us have a belief system…
and within the belief system of the addicted individual is IMPAIRED THINKING…
	which leads us to become PREOCCUPIED…so preoccupied…
that we begin to RITUALIZE the impaired thinking…
	so much so that we become COMPULSIVE about it…such that we continue to do it…
Ultimately, we experience DESPAIR….

We act out on our IMPAIRED THINKING that we have become PREOCCUPIED with, such that we RITUALIZE it, and become COMPULSIVE about it… and ultimately we experience DESPAIR. But we don’t like the despair…it feels horrible… so we fly back into the other cogwheel…back into the BELIEF SYSTEM and IMPAIRED THINKING… and before long our lives have become UNMANAGEABLE… but since we’re in the interdigitating cogwheels, we revisit that BELIEF SYSTEM, we repeat the IMPAIRED THINKING, we become PREOCCUPIED with that impaired thinking, we RITUALIZE IT, become COMPULSIVE and we experience that intolerable DESPAIR. Those things that cause the despair become short lived because we don’t like what we do…yet we’re stuck in the interdigitating cogwheels…we are in the CYCLE OF ADDICTION.

We need to BREAK THE CYCLE or we will continue in those interdigitating cogwheels until we die.

Request online or call 1-800-789-PENN