Anyone who is caught up in addiction and denial has to break through that barrier in order to change their life and get clean and sober.  Their denial keeps them trapped in addiction and the only way to really get through it is to surrender to their disease.  They must let go of everything and surrender in order to change.

Denial takes a lot of energy.  It takes a great deal of effort to keep lying to ourselves.  When we are in denial about our addiction, it is like we are running on this hamster wheel and constantly feeling worn out.  We have to play mental games in order to justify our drug use to ourselves.  It takes effort.

When we finally break through this denial, it does not require a great mental effort.  Instead, we simple let go.  We let go of the struggle to stay in control while using drugs and alcohol.  We let go of the struggle to appear halfway normal to everyone in our lives who we do not use drugs with.  It is a letting go that needs to happen.  We surrender and it is a huge release and we allow ourselves to ask for help.  This is how we get through denial.

Many addicts will admit to their addiction.  They may have been through all sorts of different drama and consequences regarding their drug use, and it becomes extremely difficult to ignore the fact that they appear to be a drug addict.  There is just no getting around it.  So how does their denial continue?  Because they reason that they could quit anytime if they really wanted to.

But the addict reasons that they do not want to quit, and they are not trying to quit.  And therefore they are not a true drug addict, because they could probably quit if they wanted to.  And they have experiences in the past where they decided they should stop for a few days, and they did so with no real problems, so they have their minds made up that they can actually quit if they really want to.

And this is how we fool ourselves.  We convince ourselves that we just don’t want to quit and that we actually like to get high every day.  We refuse to see the simple truth that we need to get high every day.  Instead we tell ourselves that we want to get high and that it is not really a need and we could stop if we really wanted to and therefore we are still in control.

The truth is that the addict is not in control and that they need help in order to stop.  This is real addiction and if someone is living it then they are still in denial.