The opposite of addiction is NOT sobriety; the opposite of addiction is connection.
One of my favorite rants on Respite From Your Job, Resources For a New Career | My Blank Job thus far is posted by a consultant. I perceive her to be a young, dedicated, up and comer in her field. She is still at the early stage in her career that she is shocked at times by the behaviors of so-called professionals around her.
Over the past month, her rants have brought us along in her story of a director drinking on the job. First the director showed up drunk for a Zoom call, and then the director took to drunk emailing late one night. Her latest post is that the director has been terminated from their position. I feel for her, while nothing shocks me at this stage in my career, I have not forgotten all of the crazy things I have witnessed that did once shock me.
I was naïve in the early years of my career to how prevalent addiction is. I did not drink at all, and I have never used a drug. I did not realize that this is not the norm. Today, I am much more aware. The biggest addictions of those around me are alcohol and smart phones. You need a 5 second Google search to find countless articles on how the pandemic has escalated abuse of alcohol.
The articles on the increase in alcohol abuse during the pandemic speculate that anxiety, fear, depression, poverty, and home school are the major drivers of the rise in alcohol abuse during the pandemic. There is no question that there is a concerning increase in alcohol consumption. I do question the speculation on the underlying causes of alcohol abuse and addiction as a whole. I do not agree that poverty is a factor. I know just as many well off alcoholics as I do unemployed alcoholics. I am not sure what to make of the idea of kids being at home is driving parents to drink.
Alcohol and smart phones are perhaps the most common of all addictions. Have you ever considered that one’s surroundings is the driver of addiction? Perhaps, it is not a chemical dependency or the result of one’s financial well being. Perhaps, it is an unhappiness brought on by a feeling of isolation and lack of connection to society.
For me personally, I once had a job that I was absolutely miserable at. My work environment was beyond toxic. I was surrounded by hateful people, who stabbed one another in the back around every turn. I had no one that I could count on or trust. I went from not drinking at all, to drinking nearly everyday. My drinking did not stop with a trip to rehab. My drinking stopped the day I changed jobs and found a team oriented work environment. That seems crazy, but there is a great deal of evidence that addiction is driven by an unhealthy mental state brought on my unhealthy surroundings in which an individual does not feel connected. They feel isolated, and this isolation drives them to seek their addiction in order to compensate for their isolation.
The rise in addiction brought to us by the pandemic more than supports this theory. The ultimate factor for so many during the pandemic was a feeling of isolation.
The opposite of addiction is not sobriety; the opposite of addiction is connection. I borrowed this phrase from the following Ted Talk, which I highly encourage you to watch: Johann Hari: Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | TED Talk.
As far as our drunk director is concerned, I do not think his next stop needs to be rehab. My suspicion is that he was extremely unhappy in his job. He likely felt isolated and helpless in his situation. I believe being terminated will be a new beginning for him. I hope that he finds a healthy, positive work environment and that he has a different experience.
Is your job driving you to drink? Perhaps, you might take a peek at the Find Your Purpose section of MyBlankJob – Respite From Your Job, Resources For a New Career | My Blank Job. Why not turn your job into My Purposeful Job, before your job becomes My Drunk Job?