I’ll try though I’m battling my own addictions. Drug/ alcohol use typically start as attempts to make you feel good. Takes your mind off stuff, makes you feel better, helps forget life’s stressors. Do it enough and you start to only feel good when using/ consuming. Then you feel miserable without it. So you keep doing it more often and your body, your mental sharpness, your health, your relationships all start to deteriorate. So you use more and more to distract you from those issues as well. Short periods of sobriety only give you an excuse to “celebrate” and your using again.

Then, god willing, a moment of awareness takes hold and a conviction to stop using becomes a goal. If you survive the “withdrawal” and continue on the path of sobriety long enough, you start to rebound. For example, I’m a functioning alcoholic so though I always took care of my kids, sobriety gave me stamina to cook better food, read to them regularly, have more patience, and not be exhausted regularly. I’m just a better parent now. The happiness I chased through excessive use was achieved through sobriety.