Keep Your 12 Steps. Addicted, and Loving It.

Image from: The Vintage Moth, old pill advertisement

You can keep your 12 steps.

I’m addicted to becoming debt free, and that’s OK.

I woke up at 2:30 am this morning realizing that I’d just made a deposit, which meant I could pay the next bill on my “snowball list.” After writing the check, and posting the envelope, I was so energized that I sat down and balanced the checkbook and wrote a half-dozen articles for clients. More productivity than I usually glean from myself in a week (especially for a summertime schedule when my days are spent running kids from one place to another).

The elation I sensed after mailing that check (in my slippers and PJs) was so much that I was sure only drugs could give you that kind of high.

I researched addiction.

Helpguide.org cites a few symptoms of being “addicted.”
Cycles of being unusually “up” and talkative fair enough. I’m so hyped up about getting debt free that my friends and family are tired of hearing about it.
Increased irritability, agitation and anger just ask the kids how I respond to the bathroom light being left on again, or wrecking a pair of school jeans on the playground when they should have been wearing their playclothes?
Unusual calmness, unresponsiveness or looking “spaced out” unusual calmness is my new look. I can’t help but be calm knowing I’m on my way to freedom.
Paranoia and delusions I do think I’ve overcome this, but I’ve suffered from it before. I had a paranoia that the Macy’s sale du jour would never be repeated, and if I liked something, I’d have to buy it right now or I’d never see it again. See “unusual calmness” above. The paranoia has dissipated but I’ll be on the lookout should it appear again.
Temporary psychosis, hallucinations Yes. I’ll admit to regular daydreams and even night dreams about opening that final bill and seeing $68 due instead of $15,000. And writing the check for the balance of my credit card debt. And then doing the happy dance. In the street.