What Addiction Robbed Me Of

Addiction robs all addicts of something...

And, let me note here that I am aware that it robs the people around the addict of things too.

My addiction to validation is a process addiction. 

We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, begging for pennies from every passerby, unaware that his fortune was right under him the whole time. Your treasure - your perfection - is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. Liz Gilbert

Addicts are searching everywhere for "happiness."

For "relief."
For validation.

Whatever that takes;

Whoever that effects;

Whenever you can get it;

That is what my constant, every minute of everyday, was spent trying so hard to find...

And, through treatment and therapy which continues, I found that it was always within me.

It's always been there.

From birth, and even before.

It's always been right there.

Yet, my addiction led me to dark places and terrible people and horrible times...

In search of what I always had within my very self.