Oooh, it’s eleven months until Christmas!
Doesn’t that sound ludicrous? I wonder if some marketer or retail person is thinking that, looking for a way to make the long holiday buying season start even earlier and last even longer.
If people aren’t anticipating the Christmas season just yet, they’re probably anticipating other things. It seems like anticipation can be our best friend or our worst enemy. Anticipation can be a best friend because it gives us something exciting in our futures, a reason for hope.
But anticipation can be an enemy as well. How many times have I dreaded something that could happen? How many times have I kicked myself afterward, because the anticipated event never occurred?
Anticipation seems to relate to alcohol abuse and drug addiction as well. People use alcohol and drugs to self-medicate, to calm their anticipatory anxiety about the future. Of course, using alcohol and drugs could lead to anxiety and depression, which could lead to more alcohol and drug abuse.
That’s why I think therapy and support meetings can be so important. They can help us
- Examine why we’re nervous when we anticipate something.
- Develop ways to handle this nervousness.
- Shift our thinking so we’re excited about anticipated changes, not nervous.
Not surprisingly, therapy is usually a major component in rehab. While substance use disorder is a disease, it affects the way we think. The way we think affects alcohol and drug abuse. Drugs and alcohol affect the mind and body in complex ways. Therapists can help untangle these relationships and work with their patients to find solutions.
Isn’t life about finding solutions? Life seems to be a search for making things simpler, better, and happier. It’s odd that the search itself can be so complex. Luckily, we have therapists and others to assist us with this search.
