Addiction Help

A "TIGER" CAN CHANGE STRIPES

Well folks, haven’t we had our fill of it-the ongoing saga of Tiger Woods. How many really care but the media bombards us and the cutting jokes keep coming. Stop already, actions speak louder than words.

I am a golf nut and admire how Tiger Woods plays golf. I’ve never much cared how he lived or what he endorsed. I’ve felt for him because he is knocked for all the media attention he gets, when he plays, television treats him like he’s the only one in the event. More than ever, knowing what we now know about his life off the golf course (more than I ever needed to know), I believe all that attention Tiger gets is not what he wanted….. A majority of the public at large wanted, no demanded it, as shown by TV ratings and the people who buy the gossip rags and create the jokes. Why knock Tiger?

It is scary. I have never been world famous, except maybe in my own mind, but have done some reasonably high profile things in my life and with humility; I know I did them reasonably well. Well enough to keep me at the "job" top of my little world for an extended period of time. It makes it easy to relate to Tiger.

I am a member of an "Addictions Professional Group", and am amazed by the amount of group chat that has gone on about Tiger. Is he an addict or just a scumbag and the like? Does it really matter? He is a human who has problems. Can anyone relate to that? I certainly can.

From personal experience I can relate to exactly what Tiger did, and I had a variety of selfish ways to help me escape reality, give me immediate pleasure and make me feel good. Damn those around me, what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them (my sick mind told me).

Only I know what I was addicted to and what things I did just for selfish pleasure and to escape the boredom of real life. The only person who should worry about whether Mr. Woods is an addict or not is Tiger himself. It is obvious he has some living problems and I’m glad to see he is getting group and individual help.

I love to learn and be reminded of things, and this has happened in some of the things Tiger has revealed. There is a lesson for all of us.

Of great importance, Tiger got away from his spiritual centre and his spiritual belief system. He got away from meditation, which for me would be a cessation of listening to my higher power.

He began living the life of a double agent. The life we saw in public, the life his wife and those close to him were allowed to see, and the life the enablers in his life saw and abetted. Those in that part of his life knew who he was and what his marital status and father status was. For whatever their reasons, they chose to be a part of this life and most know fame, power and money do attract a certain group of people.

Trouble being a secret agent with multiple lives, secret agents have to keep big secrets and if it means lying about different things to people who are a part of your various lives. Tiger must be a bright guy to get away with it for as long as he did. Secrets and dishonesty destroy a human, which is a fact!

I know what I had to go through to change my stripes. Those who know me and love me, as well as the guy I see in the mirror, know I have changed my stripes. It did not happen quickly nor did it happen easily. It happened with a lot of hard work and help from others (some of them paid professionals and a treatment facility) and a decade and a half later remains work in progress. It took what I now refer to as a "Co-Creative Process of Life Recovery". Change is hard, but change I did.

I am not Tiger or anyone who is all that special. If someone hits a point in their lives and wants to make a change just to please themselves (not others and not for money), it can be done. But like life itself, it is hard and requires action and self-honesty in the most rigorous manner.

Let’s learn from what Tiger has gone through and relate to what he told us happened. Let’s hear what the voice of "father Earl" is asking in the new Nike commercial. Let’s leave the guy alone and give him a chance over a long period of time to make change. Let’s observe, be positive and leave the jokes and rumours alone. Let’s hope for his children and family, those who love him, that he is successful in making positive change and let’s help in any way we can. Let’s not put people on a personal moral pedestal because they are as human as us, and we set ourselves up if they fall and we worship them. Let’s rejoice in the fact that if we live balanced lives, Tigers can change their stripes! (www.hopeserenity.ca; www.coached-to-success.com)