stoicism and addiction. an unlikely book pairing.
It is not often these two are paired in a book, or even a sentence for that matter. how many addicts consider themselves stoics?
Well, if they are in recovery probably more than you think. If they are in active addiction, probably very few. I’ve known one addict that thought he was a Stoic while abusing alcohol.
Me.
Something clicked in me when I found Stoicism. It was like I finally found a way of viewing and approaching my daily life that made sense. I liked the structure. I liked the principles. I liked how it taught me to calm my mind while still viewing and feeling the world completely.
NYTFG is not a book on philosophy. However, the first few journals I wrote in were firmly rooted in Stoicism. It’s an important part of who I am and it is important to show how much thought I was putting into living my life along those lines.
Why is it important to show that? To write about philosophical principles and potentially lose readers that couldn’t care less about philosophy? Glad you asked.
Two reasons. First, it makes me sound smart. If you wrote a book airing out all the ugly shit in your mind and the unbecoming actions of your past, you’d take any win you could get as well!
Second, it shows the strength of addiction on the mind. How it can take over and twist reality to break down the core of a person. Before going through all of it, I would often think, why can’t people just stop or put down? How naive Mathias. It’s not that simple. I was shown first hand. Some may call that Karma. Some may say God was leveling me out.
Whatever you may call it, knowing who I was and what I held highly in my life prior to addiction is important. It’s gives weight to the story in a big way.
As I note in the chapter, I miss the simplicity of these days. There was a cadence and a meditative quality to the morning that didn’t involve inner struggle and life battles. Reminding myself of how I strive to live and approach the day.
I could say more, or you could read it and take it in for yourself :)
So here’s Journal One of Not Yet Too Far Gone
Thanks for being here. Talk to you next week.
- Mathias John
