{"id":1208,"date":"2025-06-29T05:12:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T04:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2025-06-29T05:12:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T04:12:50","slug":"never-look-down-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/29\/never-look-down-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Look Down (Reflection)"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a time I judged and compared myself to a heroin addict. I use to look down on them, I used to report them to the staff in homeless hostels. I judged them wrongly I can admit today. They are as equal as anybody else. They are somebody&#8217;s son or daughter, in some cases they are a brother or sister. In my own case an uncle. They are Father\u2019s and Mother\u2019s too. It actually took me turning to heroin for a period to knock the judgemental side of me out. In recovery and in addiction I have an awful habit of comparing myself to others\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I believe at times I am different to others, this allows me to either justify my addictions or puts me on a pedestal when I\u2019m sober. I have often read homeless stories of people who felt like the world was looking down on them for sitting on a street corner. The word compassion has come into my head. Having compassion for others is a value I have worked hard on. I no longer judge, I see myself as an equal. There is nobody in the world that are greater and lesser than others. There was a time I was very materialistic too, (I still have these traits, they just aren\u2019t as provident as they were before. In Smart Recovery it asks you to list your values to build motivation. I listed money in my values. I no longer see it as a primary value of mine. My values today include \u2018doing good by others\u2019, \u2018living an independent and honest life\u2019 and \u2018being a disciple to my family and myself\u2019. Through this website I can achieve my values. In AA they call it a \u2018selfish programme\u2019. Maybe I should consider this a \u2018selfish website\u2019. I\u2019m hopeful some day that it will fulfill me, there is still an emptiness yearning inside me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A day may come too where you find yourself or find a loved one in a position of addiction. How would you feel about it then? I don\u2019t like quoting from other websites but upon writing this I just had to Google \u2018How many addicts are there in the world?\u2019. Here is what came up:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drug use and abuse remains a very real problem in many parts of the world, although the extent of the issue varies greatly depending on culture, access, and legislation. In 2021, the estimated number of illegal drug users worldwide was around <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">296 million<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">19 Nov 2024<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/topics\/7786\/global-drug-use\/#:~:text=Drug%20use%20and%20abuse%20remains,worldwide%20was%20around%20296%20million.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global drug use &#8211; Statistics &amp; Facts | Statista<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/topics\/7786\/global-drug-use\/#:~:text=Drug%20use%20and%20abuse%20remains,worldwide%20was%20around%20296%20million.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Statista<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/topics\/7786\/global-drug-use\/#:~:text=Drug%20use%20and%20abuse%20remains,worldwide%20was%20around%20296%20million.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.statista.com \u203a &#8230; \u203a State of Health<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, kindness can help both those in addiction and those in recovery. You don\u2019t need to be financially kind either, a simple hello or smile could change somebody suffering from addiction or a homeless person&#8217;s day. Taking the time to listen or talk to somebody in or out of addiction and homelessness is of far greater value than a can of Linden Village. I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to get both the connection with others\u2019 and the financial reward of a Linden Village. I\u2019ll finish this article quoting something I was thought in the world of hospitality and growing up:\u2018Good manners cost you nothing\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>There was a time I judged and compared myself to a heroin addict. I use to look down on them, I used to report them to the staff in homeless hostels. I judged them wrongly I can admit today. They are as equal as anybody else. They are somebody&#8217;s son ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,51,66,67,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-addiction","category-flashback","category-homelessness","category-livingsober","category-reflections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Never Look Down (Reflection) - Sober.ie V1.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There was a time I judged and compared myself to a heroin addict. I use to look down on them. 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I judged them wrongly I can admit today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sober.ie V1.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-29T04:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"827\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@#\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shanley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025\"},\"headline\":\"Never Look Down (Reflection)\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-29T04:12:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-3.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Addiction\",\"Flashback\",\"Homelessness\",\"Living Sober\",\"Reflections\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/\",\"name\":\"Never Look Down (Reflection) - Sober.ie V1.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/never-look-down-reflection\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-29T04:12:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"There was a time I judged and compared myself to a heroin addict. 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