First Things First

 You are an addict, addicted to something.  If you are to escape the addiction, you first have to stop it and get physical sobriety.  Your body stops the addictive intake.  That won’t last long if that is all you do.  Next, with the body healing, comes mental sobriety.  The fog clears up and you learn to listen to survivors, recovering people, and you begin to make some changes, such as being more helpful to others and not always thinking about yourself.  But there is more.  Next comes emotional sobriety and that goes on for a lifetime.  You have your ups and downs.  Your shortcomings, flaws in character have their moments.  This is normal life.  Normal is never constant bliss.  You want bliss?  If you have mental sobriety then you know constant bliss is not going to happen, short of death to which you were quickly hurrying when in full addiction.  Living normal is an everyday job.  It is called ongoing recovery.