This may sound like a funny title especially after addiction has caused so much damage in our lives already, but believe it or not many of us have come to see our addictions as our friend rather than our foe, and we carry on this kind of sick dysfunctional relationship with our addiction where we actually have sympathy and pity for it after we have thrown it out the door. The addiction will also call to us to remind us of all the emotional jams it has gotten us out of and how we cannot live without it. We have had an affair with our addiction that can be hard to break off unless we quit sympathizing with the lies it has been feeding us all these years.

If you believe that your addiction is your friend and that is helps you when you face pain, just look at the fruit that addiction has produced in your life. How much pain and loss has been caused in your life by the addiction itself? Quite a bit I'm sure. Addiction is like trying to win big in Vegas with impossible odds, you just end up broke and unhappy in the end. Plus, addiction always seems to take more than it gives, and as your addiction progresses, you get less and less enjoyment out of it. In the end you practice the addiction mainly to just function and avoid the withdrawal symptoms, not much fun there. Addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer.

Where was your friend (addiction) when you got fired from your job, or when your spouse and children walked out the door? It hides in the closet and tells you "Well they were just getting in our way anyway, right?" When we end up shattered and alone, addiction begins to taunt us and tell us what a loser we are and that we should just end it all. Some of us try to commit suicide and if we are lucky, someone finds us and we wake up in a hospital ward. Some of us wake up in a place that is much worse. We must realize and accept once and for all that addiction is not our friend, it is our worst enemy, and no matter what pleasure it has given us we are walking down a dangerous path that will just lead us to complete destruction in the end.

A good friend always makes your life better, a bad friend always makes your life worse. What kind of friend has your addiction been to you? Addiction takes every last thing from you until there is nothing left to give but your soul. It takes your looks, your health, your money, your family, your friends, your freedom, your reputation, and your self respect from you, and it will smile and sweet talk you through the whole thing. The addiction becomes our pimp, and we become its prostitute and God help us if we don't pay our pimp every night. Decide today to stop sympathizing with your addiction and be willing to start calling it what it is, "Death". Choose to live life by life's terms, and let God give back what your addiction stolen from you.