There’s no doubt about it: The cost of addiction is absolutely staggering. There are several ways to measure the cost of devastation on our lives:

Cost #1: Money

Do we really need to go into detail about the obscene amounts of money that get spent on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco? For starters, the typical “functional” addict or alcoholic will spend every spare cent on their drug of choice after they get their basic bills paid for each month. For you cigarette smokers out there, you should realize that the true cost of smoking is actually higher than most other “harder” drugs.

Remember that there are two financial costs to every addiction: direct and indirect. The direct cost is what you spend to buy the chemical itself. For example, a smoker might spend about $1,400 a year on cigarettes. But the indirect costs are all of those “hidden” expenses that exist because of the smoking. This would range from little things like lighters and ashtrays, all the way up to hospital stays, cancer treatments, and sick days lost at work.

Cost #2: Lifespan

Statistics vary quite a bit here, and it can be hard to get reliable data. But most studies indicate that alcoholic drinkers who never quit can expect to die about 15 to 20 years “before their time,” and cigarette smokers who don’t quit will typically lose about 12 years of life. Studies have also show that quitting at any age, even later in life, greatly reduces these lifespan penalties.

Can you really put a price on 10 years of your own precious life? How much would pay at age 60 to extend your life for 15 more years? Because addictions have the potential to steal so many years of life from us, the cost of those years has a near infinite value.

Cost #3: Time Spent Using Drugs, Alcohol, or Cigarettes

It can be surprising to most people how much time is actually spent ingesting the chemicals themselves. For example, a pack-a-day smoker typically spends an entire month out of each year engaged in the act of smoking. This is unbelievable. Think of the lost time and productivity from spending so much time caught up in the ritual of having to smoke. Those spending hours in the bars or sitting around drinking and drugging are losing even more precious time and productivity.

Addiction consumes so much of our time that we can accurately refer to this as wasting our life. Cigarette smokers might argue that they can multi-task while they smoke, but they still spend an enormous amount of time smoking, and a great deal of time in traveling to places in which they can smoke (for example, walking out of the airport terminal in order to smoke while waiting for a plane).

Cost #4: Time Spent with Mental Obsession

Another “hidden” cost for addicts is the time that they spend each day obsessing over their addiction. This includes plotting and scheming for ways to get more, where to use the chemicals, when to use them, who to involve in the next “party,” who to rely on to get more, and so on. This is the mental obsession that drives addiction. Worrying if we have enough, or how we will get more, or how we can get the money to buy more, and so on.

The mental obsession exists for smokers as well, especially when they find themselves in situations when they temporarily cannot smoke. All of this mental effort and obsession is a whole lot of wasted energy and lost productivity–just another cost of addiction.

Cost #5: Devastating Effects on Our Loved Ones

Another cost that would be very hard to put a monetary dollar amount on is the devastation that we cause to our friends and loved ones. How can we measure the sorrow of someone who is tragically killed in a drunk driving accident? Or the shame and difficulty that is thrust on a family when someone is out of control with their addiction? Again, because of the devastating nature of addiction, these are the kinds of costs that are hard to quantify but carry a near infinite value.

Ask Yourself: “Can I afford to keep using drugs, alcohol, or smoking cigarettes?” and “Am I accurately assessing the devastation caused by my drinking/drugging/smoking?”

How Addicts Twist the Economics of Addiction:

1) “I have a job and the bills are still getting paid.” - this is a typical rationalization that I used to use myself. You might be paying the bills, but every extra cent gets spent on chemicals for your body. Doesn’t make for much of a long term savings plan. And if you are lucky enough to make money with no work, then you are fooling yourself into thinking that your substance abuse habits are not really hurting you financially.

2) “Cigarette prices keep going up, but I enjoy smoking and I switched to a cheaper brand.” - great! What if cigarettes were free? There are still a hundred good reasons to quit smoking other than the high price of tobacco.

3) “I only go to the bar once a week,” or “I don’t spend more than a few hours a week drinking/drugging.” - again, so what? Binge drinkers might go for months without a drop, but they can still rack up plenty of damage when they finally pick back up. And how many times is too many when it comes to overdosing on drugs? You get the idea.

How Our Economic Mindset Changes in Recovery

1) We Learn to Stop Minimizing - Instead of minimizing the effects of addiction and its costs, we honestly assess our situation and the behaviors that got us to where we are now.

2) We Lose the Self-Centered, Greedy Mindset - This is one of the promises of working the 12 steps: “self-seeking will slip away,” and “fear of economic insecurity will leave us.” We will also shift from worrying about money and our own possessions to an interest in our fellows in recovery. In other words, money becomes less important, and the welfare of our friends, fellow addicts, and our families becomes more important to us. This is part of the spiritual experience–the complete change in personality that we go through by working the steps.

3) Freedom Becomes our New Currency in Recovery - Our obsession with money slips away because we no longer need it to buy drugs. We are no longer chasing money and chemicals. This is a new freedom, born of a spiritual transformation–the value of which is nearly infinite. We find that we are content with our lives if we work the steps and continue to stay sober. We become freed up mentally, and the value of our sobriety becomes nearly infinite. In this way, our lives take on a new meaning.