Chapter 1What Is Addictive Thinking? Interviewing Ray, a young man who had been admitted to a rehabilitation unit for drug addiction, I asked, "What made you decide it was time to do something about the problem?""I've been on cocaine for a few years," Ray replied, "and occasionally I'd quit using for a few weeks at a time, but I'd never decided to stop for good before.""For the past year my wife has been pressuring me to stop completely. She used to do cocaine too, but she's been off for several years now. I finally got to the point where doing coke wasn't worth the hassle, so I decided to give it up completely.""I sincerely wanted to stop for good, but after two weeks I started up again, and that proved something to me. I'm not stupid. I now know that it is absolutely impossible for me to stop on my own, maybe."I repeated Ray's last sentence several times because I wanted him to hear what he had just said. But he could not see what I was trying to point out.I said, "It is perfectly logical to say, 'Maybe I can stop by myself.' It is also perfectly logical to say, 'It is absolutely impossible for me to stop by myself.' But to say, 'I now know that it is absolutely impossible for me to stop on my own, maybe,' is absurd because it is self-contradictory. It is either 'absolutely impossible' or 'maybe,' but it cannot be both." Ray, however, was unable to see my point.I have repeated this conversation to a number of people, and even seasoned therapists initially show no reaction, waiting for the punch line. Only after I point out the contradiction between "absolutely impossible" and "maybe" do they see the absurdity of the statement and the distortion of thought taking place in this man's mind. Distortion of Thought The phenomenon of abnormal thinking in addiction was first recognized in Alcoholics Anonymous, where the highly descriptive term stinkin' thinkin' was coined. Old-timers in AA use this term to describe the "dry drunk," or the alcoholic who abstains from drinking but behaves in many other ways much like an active drinker.Distortions of thinking are not unique to addictive disorders, however; nor are they necessarily related to chemical use at all. Thought distortions can be found in people who may have other adjustment problems. For example, one young woman was procrastinating turning in her term paper for a class. "Why don't you finish it?" I asked. "It's finished already," she said. "Then why haven't you submitted it?" I asked. "Because I need to do some more work on it," she said. "But I thought you said it's finished," I remarked. "It is," she said. While her assertion appears illogical to most people, it can make perfect sense to someone who thinks addictively. Furthermore, although distorted thinking does not necessarily indicate addiction, the intensity and regularity of this type of thinking are most common among addicts.We all recognize that the statements "The term paper is all finished" and "I Excerpted from Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception by Abraham J. Twerski All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
