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Author: Paul Fuhr

Home Author is Paul Fuhr
Paul Fuhr
33 posts, 0 Comments
Paul Fuhr is a married father of three young children who lives in Columbus, Ohio, along with a bossy cat named Dr. No. He's written for The Fix, AfterParty Magazine, The Literary Review and The Live Oak Review, among others. He also runs the addiction recovery book publishing imprint Zephyr Bookshelf and recently published Bottleneck, a memoir about his addiction and recovery.
Addiction is not a disease

Why Is Addiction Not a Disease?

May 28, 2019addiction, alcohol, drugs, gaming, morphine, sexPaul Fuhr

It’s important for addiction discussions to note the difference between a disorder and a disease. Addiction is a disorder, not a disease, because it is a host of symptoms that are different for everyone. For instance, a disease has to be measurable and testable. You can take someone’s temperature and know that they have a

Are Some Substances More Addictive Than Others?

Are Some Substances More Addictive Than Others?

May 20, 2019adderall, alcohol, crack cocaine, drugs, morphine, oxycodone, xanaxPaul Fuhr

Not all substances have the same level of addiction, and a user’s road to dependency can vary greatly depending on which particularly substance is being abused. Common drug addictions can be broken down into three categories that roughly correspond to the first three levels on the FDA’s schedule of controlled substances: drugs that are highly

How Do You Know if You Have a Drinking Problem? The drinking problem isn’t always measured in the number of drinks someone consumes.

How Do You Know if You Have a Drinking Problem?

May 13, 2019addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, cravings, depressing, drinking problemPaul Fuhr

It’s not always easy to tell if you’re drinking too much or simply more than you want to be. After all, “normal” drinking behavior for one person isn’t necessarily the same for another. Casual drinking is someone who doesn’t have more than a few drinks with friends and family. Casual drinkers don’t obsess over their

Does Drug or Alcohol Rehab Work?

Does Drug or Alcohol Rehab Work?

May 6, 2019alcohol, depressing, drugs, morphine, recovery, rehab, therapy, treatmentPaul Fuhr

There are plenty of successful recovery stories that testify that drug and centers can work well for many addicts. However, this success really hinges on matching the right kind of treatment with the specifics of the addiction and the addict’s personality. Not every treatment for addiction is the same, just as not every addict is

How Does Someone Go From Being in a Maximum Security Prison to Being the “Ambassador of Hope”?

October 3, 2018addiction, recoveryPaul Fuhr

When I first swapped contact info with Andre Norman, he happily informed me that he was on a family Disney cruise. Seconds later, he sent along a selfie to further prove the point. On my phone, I saw the relaxed stranger in his cabin: comfortably stretched out on a couch while casually throwing me a

A Guide to the Best Recovery Podcasts

September 24, 2018recoveryPaul Fuhr

Very early into my sobriety (and I’m talking days, not weeks), I suffered from a perfect storm of problems. Like any career alcoholic who suddenly resigns without giving their two-week notice, everywhere I turned, there was another surprise around the corner. First, there were all the fun physical withdrawal symptoms: the sheet-twisting sleeplessness, the racing-mind

September Recovery Reading Round-Up

September 10, 2018alcoholism, recoveryPaul Fuhr

Decades ago, I used to marvel at my Corporate America middle-managers and supervisors and executive directors who’d all stacked their office shelves with more books than they’d ever get to in a year, let alone a career. Still, I recall being blown away by the knowledge they’d must have amassed from reading everything on display,

When It All Stopped Working: An Excerpt from Bottleneck

August 21, 2018drinking, recoveryPaul Fuhr

When you’re a recovering alcoholic and everyone around you knows it, you’re suddenly exposed. People know what to expect. You don’t have to hide much. But when you’re an alcoholic who’s suddenly a recovering alcoholic who’s trumpeting it on Facebook and showing off your 30-day sober coin while you’re secretly drinking again, it becomes ten

25 Recovery Hashtags You Need to Know

August 10, 2018addiction, online recovery, recoveryPaul Fuhr

I apparently just celebrated 10 years of being on Facebook. For six of those years, I was an active alcoholic. And it showed. That’s the thing about social media and addiction: you can try to manicure your life and make it pretty-perfect, but the more you try to make it look good, all you do

Life Recovery

Scott Steindorff: Life Recovery Project

January 20, 2018Life, Project, recovery, rehab, Scott SteindorffPaul Fuhr

Producer Scott Steindorff’s filmography reads like its own compelling mystery: a wildly eclectic series of clues left for some seasoned detective to puzzle back together. Steindorff has produced Westerns (Jane Got a Gun), comedies (Chef), dramas (The Lincoln Lawyer), and epic romances (Love in the Time of Cholera). There’s even a successful TV show in

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An Open Letter to Anyone Struggling with Addiction
By Joe Polish
First I want to say how sorry I am that you or someone you love is struggling with addiction. I know firsthand how painful it is. Addiction nearly killed me when I was 18 years old.
What I’ve learned since then is that almost all addiction stems from trauma. This can be difficult for some people to understand; they assume trauma has to mean a person was beaten, molested or in a life-threatening accident. But we all have different levels of sensitivity.
Addiction is something you are driven to do—anything you crave that gives you temporary pleasure or relief but then causes negative consequences. Addiction is something you are unable to give up, despite the suffering it causes.
The challenging thing for people that don’t have this to understand is how someone could have that craving in the first place. They wonder why the addict can’t just make a better choice.
I’m of the belief that addiction is not a choice. Once the addict goes into a craving state, it’s beyond willpower or intelligence. Intelligence can actually be a detriment because the smarter people are, the more they believe they can think their way out of the problem.
What many don’t understand is that addiction isn’t a problem—it’s actually a solution. If you’re in pain, angst, anxiety, fear, rage, depression, sadness, loneliness or experiencing any other form of suffering, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be out of that pain. It’s how we go about scratching the itch that causes the issue.
Ultimately, addiction is a connection disorder. It’s feeling incredibly disconnected and uncomfortable in your own skin. You just want to numb out, or escape. You want to feel something—anything except the dread that comes with that craving state…a state that always has compulsivity or impulsivity attached to it.
Looking at addiction from a state of compassion, as opposed to judgment, is critical. We cannot punish or beat addiction out of somebody. Sure, we can throw people in prison, scold them or run away from them, but that doesn’t help make the cravings go away. Love and compassion are critical—though, of course, those can be difficult emotions to embrace when dealing with addicts. The symptoms of addiction can be ugly; they often involve activities like cheating, disrupting, lying, stealing and other egregious acts. That’s because addicts will do anything to get out of the pain they are in. The addict brain has an appetite for destruction and is fueled more by chaos than harmony. In other words, it’s hard for addicts to feel okay. And it’s not easy to feel compassion for someone who’s leaving shrapnel in their wake. But the more you can understand that the addict is in pain and just trying to get out of it, the easier it can be to deal with the recklessness and chaos that comes with it.
Addiction is also biochemical. You are dealing with serotonin and dopamine. Once you quit the drug or behavior, you may have to fix and repair the gut. You have to get the body back to a state where it produces “feel good” chemicals in order to cope with the uncomfortable feelings. This means exercise, yoga, meditation, float pods, the right nutrition, and more. The issues are in the tissues, and if you can incorporate movement and communities, it can help heal. Building a rapport by being around other addicts is critical. It doesn’t have to be a 12-step meeting; you just need a community—an ongoing, consistent community.
It’s a lot of work—but not nearly as much work as active addiction. And if you’re willing to do the work, there’s freedom on the other side that most addicts and their families probably haven’t ever experienced before. The bottom line: help is available. There are many people and resources available at little or no cost.