Solution Issues

I hear people say that they got some help so that they could stop ingesting an addictive substance, or stop partnering with the wrong people, or stop some other destructive behavior.  In the beginning the process is one of stopping something.  But there must be more than stopping.  Why?  Well, there is the solution and there is the problem.  People choose a solution such as alcohol, food , drugs, sex, work, shopping, that does not seem to make them happy.  That is, they chose the wrong solution.  If you focus only on this, your solution,  you are left with the problem that the solution was meant to "fix."  That is why all successful solutions are spiritual.  The problem is an interior one of soul.  I meet people who stopped drinking and said, "I am OK now."  Really?  Short term they feel physically better.  But the problem that alcohol addressed remains. They thought that alcohol was their problem, but alcohol was their solution and it did not work.  Soon enough they are back to the bottle.  All our addictions are our solutions to a problem, but the problem is ourselves.  Many more people are always giving up something for a short time, but far fewer are those who will do the inner work.  The inner work is the tougher journey, one step at a time.