Damn, that's such a solid observation. I'm one of the many people who've never personally faced addiction but dealt with it in friends and family, and I do a lot of work in the recovery realm. Awareness of these things that "normalize" behavior seems like something we need much more of. Also, google up the poem by Louise Gluck, "The Wild Iris" - I've never read anything that so beautifully captures what happens when one emerges from trauma or addiction. She won the Pulitzer for that collection, but I suspect she won it for the last lines of that poem, about "returning from oblivion". Your voice in these articles reminds me of that.
Thank you for this. I just looked up “The Wild Iris” and that final passage about returning from oblivion hit me hard. I really appreciate the comparison. And I think you’re exactly right that part of the danger is how certain behaviors become normalized long before anyone recognizes what’s happening underneath them. Thanks for reading so thoughtfully and for the work you do in recovery spaces.
Damn, that's such a solid observation. I'm one of the many people who've never personally faced addiction but dealt with it in friends and family, and I do a lot of work in the recovery realm. Awareness of these things that "normalize" behavior seems like something we need much more of. Also, google up the poem by Louise Gluck, "The Wild Iris" - I've never read anything that so beautifully captures what happens when one emerges from trauma or addiction. She won the Pulitzer for that collection, but I suspect she won it for the last lines of that poem, about "returning from oblivion". Your voice in these articles reminds me of that.
Thank you for this. I just looked up “The Wild Iris” and that final passage about returning from oblivion hit me hard. I really appreciate the comparison. And I think you’re exactly right that part of the danger is how certain behaviors become normalized long before anyone recognizes what’s happening underneath them. Thanks for reading so thoughtfully and for the work you do in recovery spaces.