I’m all for chasing mani/pedis and the like, but there is a functional disconnect around the idea of “self care.” In the last 10 or so years, it’s become a thing you say not only in the “drinks after work?” or “spa day?” sense, but to justify the removal of toxic people from your life. Now, in general life is pretty short, and having toxic people around is probably not the best overall way to approach it. But, there’s a lot people don’t know or understand about addiction. When someone is in turmoil and addiction is the root cause (been there), you can alienate a lot of people, as the above pull quote (it’s from this article) illustrates.
Now, the problem with this is that the opposite of addiction often isn’t sobriety — it’s connection. So when people get rid of you at a time you really need connection, and then share memes like this:
… it doesn’t help the addict. It’s very easy to turn your back on someone who is struggling and potentially annoying you or sending you a lot of texts or seemingly picking fights on SMS or email. I have done all these things, and I have seen former friends of mine post all these types of memes days later, as if they picked “peace over drama.” That’s why they think they did…
