You Can’t Outrun What You Won’t Name
Saying “I’m an addict” is easy.
People say it all the time now, like it’s trendy or something.
“Oh, I’m totally addicted to oat milk lattes.”
Cute.
But when you really say it – when it’s not a joke or a tweet or a way to excuse some chaos you’re not ready to own –
It hits different.
It hits everything.
Because saying “I’m an addict” and actually meaning it?
That’s not weak. That’s not broken.
That’s you finally stepping into the same room as your truth – no filters, no drama, no performative sob stories.
It’s a full-body surrender.
And not the romantic kind.
The kind that costs you.
Because once you name it, you can’t un-know it.
You can’t go back to pretending this is all just bad luck, or bad company or a bad week.
It’s you, Sugar.
Your patterns. Your choices. Your need to disappear into something that doesn’t demand anything back.
And if you’re not ready to change?
Those words will haunt you.
They’ll follow you into every drink, every relapse and every lie you tell yourself about “just one more.”
They’ll grow teeth.
But if you are ready – really, painfully, stubbornly ready – then those same words become a doorway.
Ugly, unglamorous, terrifying but still a doorway.
Saying “I’m an addict” is the start of something that might just save your life.
Not immediately but eventually.
If you let it.
Because the moment you say it and actually mean it?
You’re no longer hiding.
Actually meaning it is the hard part. Feeling the truth of saying “I’m an addict” settle in your body is something else entirely. It’s the moment you stop denying what your choices have done – to your relationships, your health, your sense of self. You’re no longer minimizing or explaining it away. You remember the promises you broke, the mornings you couldn’t look at yourself and that quiet shame that followed you even on your best days. When you mean it, you’re no longer performing recovery but rather, you’re stepping into it. You’re finally telling the truth – to yourself first. And that truth, while uncomfortable, is what makes healing possible.
And that’s when the real work begins – the kind that gets you your damn self back.
And that?
That’s worth it.
Even on the days you hate it and especially on the days you want to quit quitting.