Detox and withdrawl

The time has arrived for Hadassah to be weaned from her soother. It took almost two years to get her addicted to the plug, much longer than expected. For all that time if we saw her thumb in her mouth we told her "no thumb" and replaced it with her soother. Then a few months ago she actually started looking for her "sue" herself and asking for it. She calls out "sue, where are youuuu?" It is very cute but unfortunately she still sucks her thumb. So, sue is just for nighttime and car rides (times when I cannot remind her not to suck her thumb.)


This is where the withdrawl comes in. I try to keep all soothers out of sight but the kid has them stashed everywhere. Ones I haven't seen for ages suddenly turn up in her mouth. And if she happens to see one it goes in her mouth or she cries and reaches for it if it is in sight but out of reach. When I take them from her at times she has bawled as though she has injured herself beyond repair. You would think the child was hurt not merely wanting her "fix".

Most of the time, so long as soothers are out of sight, she is good now. She plays and doesn't even miss her sue. But when I take it from her in the morning or after nap we usually have some sort of protest that happens. It has been rough but I think I do see light at the end of this tunnel.

Since the soother has become a nap time/ night time occurrence I must say it hasn't been hard getting her to go to bed. Some nights she even wants to go to bed early just to have her soother.

And as human being myself who has struggled with addictions I realize that it isn't easy. Reminding myself that her flinging herself on the floor in a fit because she can't have her "fix" is no different than how I feel when God tells me to let something go. Sometimes we do well but then we see or hear or have some sort of trigger that reminds us of what we have given up and then we feel like we are back to square one of giving whatever the addictions is to God.

In the case of an addiction that isn't sin when done in moderation it would often be easier to just give it up entirely. I know if I could take Hadassah's sue away from her and throw them all out it wouldn't take long her for her to forget about them. Of course that isn't really dealing with the addiction as her thumb would just replace the sue. And often, if we don't have a heart change we will just replace the addiction in our lives with something else. For instance a smoker will often turn to food for their oral fixation.

I know their are a lot of wholes in my examples today. For one, some people might not even understand why I am taking my daughter's sue away in the first place. She is after all just a tot and hardly "sinning". But this was just something I got out of the experience. And I am not saying that God doesn't tell you to completely give something up. Nor am I saying that it is wrong to completely give something up. But for me I often feel God is teaching me moderation rather than abstinence in the cases of such addictions as computers, tv, reading, and food.

So instead of not having sweets in my house I choose to have sweets in my house and control myself in how many I eat. It is the harder route for sure but it is where I feel I am at.