Label with Love

Not all labels are bad! I don't mind being labelled "Wife" "Mother" "Grandmother" "Activist" "Teacher" etc. 
(I even think that some people should come with a "warning label"! ) 
I am a recovered "Addict". 
Now I am sure many of you will say that particular label isn't a good thing, that it is "negative",  but I really don't mind the label! I don't need to go on about it, or dwell on it,  but it keeps my feet firmly on the ground, and reminds me how bad it was, and could be again if I choose to go along that path! (even 40 years down the line!)
But please stop calling me, and those like me,  "sick". I am not "broken" or "defective", I don't have an "illness"nor am I "emotionally immature" or "weak willed", or "weak intellect", I am simply wired in a different way!! We are each of us, after all, a sum total of our genetic blueprint and our life experience.

If I had been around a few hundred years ago, my "different" wiring would have been very valuable in our society. Because I would have been the one who was always dissatisfied, underwhelmed, have a perpetual feeling of "ennui",  and would be off hunting the fattest boar, the biggest kill, always seeking and trying to get the biggest, best, most, because I simply would not have been  satisfied with the apple tree in the garden! We have very often been referred to as "creatures of excess".
This isn't greed or ingratitude, it is simply a matter of having evolved a biological advantage, which in our modern society is no longer as valuable a trait! We no longer need those who would go out for the biggest kill, the best, the most, but some of us have still got that hard wiring! We are still the greatest seekers of "MORE" and unfortunately we often found that  in mood altering chemicals!
We simply don't feel  pleasure in the same way, or as easily  as others, this is because we have less availability of  particular receptor sites in the reward pathway of the brain, and need  greater stimulation to feel the same reward.
BUT, we are very driven people! and when we are able to get away from the chemicals that were killing us, that incredible drive can be transformed into something really quite awesome! 
It is very simple, if I take mood altering chemicals it brings out the very worst in me! If I keep away from them, and find my passions elsewhere I can be the BEST I can be.
The key words PASSION and PURPOSE,  finding something that gives us the greatest pleasure and meaning without chemicals!

For some that is sport, maybe even scuba diving or belly dancing, a new career, become an activist in something we feel strongly about, rekindling an old interest, rearing a family, learning a new skill, fulfilling long held dreams, everyone will have different drives, but it has to be something meaningful that we feel passionate about, it can't be anything mediocre, otherwise pretty soon we would be off looking for something bigger, better,  MORE!

I have six children! (That is quite excessive!) they have been the biggest most exciting of  joys, three grandchildren too! 
I feel absolutely, obsessively, passionate about the treatment of other addicts and survivors of abuse.
I want only the absolute BEST for them! Not just a "that will do" approach. 
I have my work! and that is the biggest Buzz anyone could ever have, and the longer I continue, the more passionate I feel about it. I have treated thousands of people, and I have personally taught fifteen thousand healthcare workers!
So the label I like most is "Luckiest and most grateful person on the planet!"
Still driven for MORE!