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Active in our addictions, we shrink ourselves so that we and our use may go unnoticed.

We may believe that we do not deserve to take up space in the world, which is a deficit of self-respect.

Self-respect is an achievement of moral development that depends on love, care, and support.

Addictions can cause us to lose self-respect. Does a deficit of self-respect contribute to addiction?

Active in our addictions, our worlds often shrink. We prune people from our lives who question our use. We remove ourselves from events and activities that once brought us joy. We become less willing to do or try new things. Where before possibilities had seemed like opportunities, now they just feel daunting and even threatening.

We make ourselves smaller. We start to take up less space in our own lives. As someone once said, I felt like a mouse running around the trim board of my own life. Our making ourselves smaller goes hand in hand with our social and physical worlds contracting; they aid and abet each other.

Why do we skitter around the margins of our own lives?

Some of us want to go unnoticed. We may tell ourselves, better to stay off the radar screen than have people judging us. We may take our not being noticed as evidence that we aren’t doing so badly.

If people do notice us and our use, we may automatically assume that they are judging us in the same harsh ways that we judge ourselves. Of course, there are........

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