Everything In Moderation

* Read the Note For Context found above 

I get the impression that in our society we have convinced ourselves that moderation is healthy. It may come from the idea that all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial. I believe that the idea behind this phrase was an attempt to get people to step away from a set rules for everyone and to realize that we all have different struggles and the problems lie much more with the character of the person than the thing they are doing wrong. I tend to think about the idea that playing cards is evil. There were and probably still are people who thought anyone who played cards was a horrible person. I don't believe cards are evil but for someone who has a gambling struggle they may not ever be able to touch a deck of cards again. So we need to know ourselves. We all have different struggle and anything that makes you feel conflicted is a something that you should be able to do away with.
            Unfortunately, a person who is struggling with  gambling and admits that he can't play cards ever again is looked at as weak and inferior by people who have no struggle with playing cards. They may say "playing go fish isn't a problem" and "we're not gambling" They may say that everything is ok in moderation.
 For people who have struggles things are not ok in moderation. It is very easy for people to always try to control their struggle thinking that everything is ok in moderation. If fact the hope is that someday their struggle will be controllable. It seems to make sense but moderation is a lie, maybe the best one people tell themselves.
The reality is that it is very hard to quit something that you keep doing in fact it is physically impossible by definition to stop doing something that you are still doing.  So only by rejecting the moderation is healthy idea can we quit anything.
            Another idea that goes against moderation is healthy is the fact that many things in our lives are entirely unnecessary . So much of what we eat, and watch and do are not required, we would only be better off without them. I'm not saying that you have to give all these things up but you could and you may be better for it. We actually need far less than we think we do. There was a time when there were no cell phone's computers or the internet, no processed foods. People lived. If it all went away today we would still live. So we can actually remove unnecessary things from our lives. Less is more in many cases. But most people want to believe that they need things so they criticize those of us that continue to remove unnecessary things from our lives. For me, no fast food is better than some fast food. If people started to find out that we could be much healthier simply rejecting the idea of moderation and cut out the things that are not necessary we could be happier people.

*In my time since quitting drinking it seems like more "friends" have told me I should drink than those that have said I should stay sober. I understand balance but lets face it I don't need alcohol to survive even in moderate amounts. Be careful who you say this around as it is the goal of every addict to become a moderate.