"I'm only 27"

Yesterday, I had some friends over to my new apartment to catch-up and play board games. A few hours in and we got into some deep conversations as usual. The topic of having children came up and at one point I said "I'm only 27" and my friend, Tim, called me out on it right away.

Tim is in his mid-thirties and rightfully pointed out that when I was 24 I would excuse myself from some responsibilities in life by saying "I'm only 24". 3 years later and I am pulling the same shit at age 27.

It made me laugh. Tim was totally right. And I was grateful to be called out for it. It made me think about some of my junkie thinking I have had in the past.

Junkie thoughts are usually some kind of strategy to evade responsibility and rationalise engaging in a behaviour with destructive consequences. Many of my past junkie thoughts have been along the lines of: "I am too young to settle down, I want to have sex as much as possible whilst I'm in my prime"

"Doing this isn't too bad because I am only young"

"I've got time to stop watching porn. I can always stop in the future. This doesn't matter now"

There are many more I could go into. What is interesting is our solution (the full 5-Fact script) to junkie thoughts focuses on the present moment, right now. And the truth is, age is just a number that actually has absolutely nothing to do with one's choices with regards to engaging in a compulsive behaviour. A person's age can definitely be used as a junkie thought across all kinds of ages, whether younger or older. Some guys in their 50's and 60's have shared with us thoughts like this: "I am too old to change my addicted neural pathways"

"I have been in this cycle for 40 years now. This is just who I am"

"It doesn't matter. It has ruined my life already"

Again, whatever age you are isn't going to take away the horrible consequences of engaging in a behaviour you deeply want to stop.

So, look out for the bullshit. Age can become an easy excuse to make poor choices. Those poor choices will impact you, regardless of your age.