T.Harv Eker is just about as near perfect an example as you could choose of someone that succeeded in attaining The American Dream. Harv’s childhood was spent in Canada, the son of immigrants from Europe, and then moved to the United States. To make ends meet he worked a multitude of different jobs.
Struggling to get through this difficult time is what prompted Eker to strike out on his own and start a business. Eker endured a string of failed business ventures before he began to figure out the root cause of these failures and how things could be changed. He began thinking about how we act and react to money, and how our internal thought processess and beliefs effect our ability to succeed.
What Harv discovered is that success starts from the inside, and not the other way round. Although a little luck is never a bad thing, it is our financial blueprint that will determine how we think, plan and make decisions around financial issues. These internal blueprints are developed during our socialisation and heavily influenced by our parents, schooling, friends and the media.
Most people would think that it is fairly easy to spot the signs of alcohol addiction – just watch for someone who is drinking too much, right? But the issue is more complicated than that, and we also have to differentiate between alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse. They are two separate things and the way you go about treatment for them is different as well. First, let’s look at some terms: “Alcohol abuse” is not the same as “alcohol addiction” (which we can also call alcoholism). 1) Alcohol abuse - is when someone is abusing alcohol, which could be daily or it could be every once in a while. Just because a person is drinking heavily does not automatically make them into an alcoholic. For example, many young people in college abuse alcohol fairly regularly but are not actually addicted to alcohol, nor do they become alcoholic. 2) Alcohol addiction - this is alcoholism (the terms can be used interchangeably). Alcohol addiction is a more serious issue than mere abuse, although in the early stages it can be tough to tell them apart. In reality, the only one that has to identify themselves as being alcoholic is the person themselves, other people’s opinions will not make any difference to them. Alcoholism is characterized by: * Craving for alcohol * Withdrawal symptoms when not drinking * Blackouts And so on and so forth. Although it is still possible to get some of these things from alcohol abuse as well. So how can you tell the difference? Alcoholism is about a lifelong struggle that happens over time. With alcohol abuse, if you take the booze out of the picture, then there is no problem and the person gets better. With alcoholism, if you remove the drinking, the problems are just starting. The person will go through detox and if they don’t return to drinking or start working some sort of recovery then eventually they will become uncomfortable enough and they will relapse. This does not occur with alcohol abuse. So we can see that some of the characteristics of alcohol addiction are: 1) Physical dependency - the need to drink in order to function on a physical level. 2) Withdrawal symptoms - that occur when stopping drinking. 3) Obsession with drinking - the thoughts and mental energy spent thinking about drinking or being drunk when someone is sober. 4) Compulsive drinking - the inability to stop drinking once someone has started. The lack of ability to have just a couple drinks and be done with it. However, recognize that there are alcoholics out there who are seriously addicted to booze but at the same time will not show heavy signs of physical withdrawal. The issue is not how much we drank or even how frequently we drank, but more about how we felt when we drank and how we reacted to our own habit of drinking.
Modern Western society has a five-sensory view of the world. It focuses only on what can be shown to originate within the physical world, and denies those aspects of ourselves that interact with the reality that exists beyond our five physical senses. But deep down inside you know there is more to us than just the physical. Each of us has an intuitive self, a part of us that can touch the higher vibrations of the universe. In our world, that part of us is put down and shunned, but it is a natural and innate aspect of who we are. Fortunately, our intuitive self is always there, and needs only to be liberated and energized to share its wisdom and help with us. Your intuitive self communicates through images, sounds, feelings and flashes of awareness. Its messages come in many forms, if only you are willing and able to listen to them.
Things that are signs of the workings of your innate intuitive self can be things like sensing who is calling you before you answer the phone, ‘knowings’ about people, places, or circumstances that steer your responses beyond rational explanation, telepathy, empathy, hearing a voice within your head, synchronicity and flow, an irrefutable sense of certainty, awareness of subtle energy, and other such experiences.
How can we give addiction help to a struggling drug addict or alcoholic?
To begin, one of the first things you need to do in your relationship with the addict is to change your own behavior. The whole point is to be firm but fair and supportive without enabling, which of course can be a very fine line at times. This means that you might have to take a stand on some issues and put your foot down in cases where in the past you might have helped them. For example, if a struggling addict has children and they come over and beg for money so that they can provide for their children – do you give it to them? Some people might think it is compassionate to give them money because it’s for their kids but this is actually hurting the addict and their children in the long run. Because they are actively using drugs and alcohol, the money you give them is actually supporting their habit, even if indirectly. Just because they played the “kids” angle on you does not mean that they are not still wasting money on dope.
