“Until we admitted our powerlessness, denial kept us from realizing how unmanageable our lives had become. Our visions of achievement and our desires of being wise, loving, compassionate, or valued had remained mostly dreams. We rarely realized our potentials. We had settled for being merely functional.”

– Life with Hope, first edition, page 3

The word “denial” is synonymous with being an addict. As an acronym (Denial – Didn’t Even Notice I Am Lying), denial helps explain why I would promise not to use and then an hour later I would be smoking a joint. I wasn’t even aware of the lies I was telling myself. I could lie to myself and believe it. Every lie that I believed took me farther from the life I wanted to live. I was living the fantasy of functionality.

One day I walked into the rooms of Marijuana Anonymous and was told that I needed to get honest with myself and my addiction. I had to take an honest look at my relationship with marijuana and the depths to which it had brought me. From that day onward it became easier to be honest with myself and with those in my life, and to face “life on life’s terms.”

Final thought: Today, I admit that I am powerless over marijuana, and by doing that, my life becomes more manageable!