Country Song About Addiction That’s Really A Song about Fighting for Your Life
Wasted, by Carrie Underwood
(Lyrics) ..For one split second, she almost turned around…so she took another step and said I see the way out…
If you’ve ever reached out your arms in the hopes of pulling someone you desperately love from the edge of the pit of hell, and if you’ve witnessed almost losing them to horrendous addiction, then you know perfectly well what the true meaning of helpless is. It’s the most powerless feeling in the world.
All of us who have stood with outstretched arms screaming inside ourselves for our addicted loved one to care enough about themselves to want to save their own life know there’s only one road to getting there; they have to want to do it. It doesn’t matter how much we want it for them; they have to want it for themselves.
Every time I listen to this song and hear the lyric, ‘and he looked in the mirror and his eyes were clear for the first time in a while,’ I think about my loved one and that moment he was brought back to me, carried by angels I’m sure. He looked into my eyes, and for the first time in years, I saw him, the real him. He came out of the pit of hell, fought arm in arm with the devil himself, took the pain head-on, and lived!
I’ve never lived outside my body, but I don’t even remember breathing during this time of my life. For that moment, seeing his eyes, blue and perfect, and hearing him speak calmly, healed all of our open wounds. Although I knew this would be an all-consuming battle for his entire life, it was a feeling I know I’ll never forget – relief, a new beginning, possibilities, but mostly hope…for the first time, hope.
The lyrics are about an addict deciding he ‘no longer wants to spend any more time wasted’…he let too much time go by already, and for the first time, he makes the bravest decision of his life…he sees a way out, and takes it.
An Anthem for Self Realization
As the lyric says, ‘It’s time to be a man and stop living for yesterday.’ You can watch all the Dr. Phil episodes about addiction you want to, but until you’ve lived with and witnessed the guts it takes for someone with this sickness to break free, nothing, and I mean nothing compares. It’s probably one of the hardest life battles to win, and when it’s someone you love more than yourself, it’s a pain that no one can erase. Ever.
I love the positive message of this song for the addict because the song isn’t about family members trying to save them, it isn’t about how they’ve hurt themselves and those they love…no no no…this song is all about the addict realizing, first and foremost for themselves, that they are responsible for their choices. The strength must come from them. Support systems are essential during this process, but the addict has to answer that constantly ringing telephone and agree with themselves to take that wake-up call!
How does this Country Song about Addiction End
The song ends with hope, and that’s how my story ends. My loved one is doing well; will he have to battle for his entire life?…well, never being afflicted with this fight myself, I don’t want to sound like I know the answer…but the experts say yes, he will.
Blessings to all of you battling drugs or alcohol. Let me say to you; you are loved, you are worth it, and you are capable of much more than you realize…in you, there’s a strength you’ve never known…find it, use it, ask for help, take that help, and then win this battle for your life!
As I was driving my loved one to Detox, both of us knowing the pain he was about to go through; my heart hurt so much that if I could, I would have taken his place
The drive to detox was about 40 minutes, and we didn’t say too much. When we arrived at the center, I wasn’t allowed passed a certain point, and as I hugged him with all my being, and to help him stay calm during the storm, I whispered this quote to him: “Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes he calms the child who is in the storm”
After four days of almost no sleep for any of us, I picked him up from the Detox Center…, and on our way home, I will never, as long as I live, forget these words…’he said; I remembered what you told me, that sometimes God calms the person in the storm…and it got me through. Tears flowed.
Detox was only the beginning, next was a month of rehab.
This blog post has been Digiproved © 2014-2017 Barbara (Tremblay) Cipak
I love this song! I agree with you too. I love the song because it is about the moment when the individual with the addiction decides to take back control of their life. I rejoice with you for your loved one! How truly fabulous! It takes a great deal of strength to even admit there is a problem and tremendous courage to actually do something about it.
Cynthia, thank you, and you put it well, ‘when they decide to take back control of their own life’, that’s when the first step to change begins.