The Death of Philip Seymour Hoffman

 

The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is on my mind.

I haven’t been as open in the last several years about my battles with addiction but when I see something like this it makes me feel like I need to be more upfront about it.

The One You Feed is a podcast that was started to a great degree as an effort to keep our own demons at bay. As Phillip’s 23 years of sobriety before he relapsed show, the bad wolf is always there. I had almost 10 years of sobriety at one point before relapsing. I’m happy to be back now with almost 8 years.

The image of him dead with a needle in his arm is haunting because I have slapped people back to life in the exact same way and been revived myself. It’s scary as hell.

Our show is not about addiction specifically, although it comes up.

I think we all face the same fundamental battles in making a life worth living. The circumstance are just more dire for some people.

The reason I love the parable of the Two Wolves so much is it points to a fundamental way to beat addiction or to overcome anything. We have to feed the good side of us. It’s not just about starving the bad side. If we don’t actively feed the good parts of ourselves, we will feed the bad parts because we are hungry. Every one of us is hungry. We are hungry for a life that has meaning, peace, joy, excitement and love.

Ending an addiction without filling up our lives in a positive way is likely to end in failure. The same is true for any habit or behavior we are trying to change.  We have to feed the good wolf.