Choose Your Hard

An old friend reached out to me recently. He said he was ready—ready to work the steps, ready to change his life.

There was just one problem.

He wasn’t clean.

He explained that he was “weaning” himself off heroin with methamphetamine. Yes—meth. As if swapping gasoline for a house fire somehow counts as harm reduction. Apparently, this was his version of a "meth-maintenance" plan.

I told him I’d work with him, no hesitation. But there was a line I wouldn’t cross: he’d have to be off all mind-impairing substances before we could begin. No shortcuts. No chemical loopholes.

“I want to,” he said. “I really do. But detox is so hard.”

He’s right. Detox is hard. There’s no sugarcoating it.

But so is addiction.

Here’s the difference: detox is hard for a while—until you get to the other side. Addiction is hard forever—until it takes everything, including your life.

Addiction is hard. Detox is hard.

Choose your hard.