An addict always feels less than. This feeling creates the limited belief that you are not good enough and also internal chaos to try and cover up this “fact”. How do you cover up these feelings so that others do not find out the truth? Maybe through lying about who you really are. “If they knew me, they would not like me.” Presenting yourself as someone you wish you were? Always trying to control outside situations and people? Creating a smokescreen to hide the truth of who you are? Compartmentalizing your past, your life, and your friends? With addiction, it is never about the substance, but always about your obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviors. The end result is that you can never be authentic with yourself or others. This is also how you become fractured with the relationship to yourself. The only way out is to go within. To go within you must observe your thoughts without condemnation. Judgment only causes you to totally disconnect and creates cognitive dissonance. Therefore, you must be able to practice rigorous honesty without reservation. What gets in the way? Denial. “I can’t be this bad because I am such a good person.”