The Pain of Withdrawal

One of our girls is going through a withdrawal. No, not a withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. She’s going through boyfriend withdrawal.
This is actually quite good because she has a male dependency and thinks she needs to constantly be in a boyfriend relationship, many of whom weren’t what they should have been. She craves the attention of boys and believes she’s not a whole person without it. She realizes her problem intellectually, and has “taken the pledge” to not have a boyfriend at least for the remainder of this year. It’s been tough, to say the least.
I knew that some women (and men too) had this kind of a problem, but wasn’t aware that this could have just as strong of an addictive track as nicotine, alcohol, or narcotics. The road she’s on is really a tough pull for her, and I feel rather helpless at times to help her much other than to encourage her as best I can.
We often say about others whom we see are in difficult circumstances to just get out of those circumstances and do something different. It’s as if they could just wave the magic wand over themselves and all would be well. We do it with people who are homeless, in abusive relationships, who are hooked on gambling, shopping, or eating, and with people who have compulsive disorders such as stealing.
Only those who have not gone through the torture of having and trying to release oneself from such a demon would ever be so naïve as to think that all that is needed is to just change behavior, as if it can be done in the next 10 minutes and one is cured.
We’re cheering for our girl and working with her as best we can. She’s also in therapy and is working with her therapist on this and other issues that affect her. She has a lot of will power and she has given her life to Jesus Christ. Her family is behind her. Her friends are cheering her on. She’s on the right track. But that track has a lot of trestles and tunnels to navigate yet. The jury’s still out.