By Barbara Nicholson-Brown

Email: [email protected]

Recently I watched, Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler on Netflix. Both brought to light the lengths cons will go to pull off their many lies and scams. From what I know, the end goal is usually money — and lots of it. There are hundreds of stories how a swindle starts out as an online love relationship, or quick investment scheme to make fast, easy money. Swindler’s groom their unsuspecting prey for as long as it takes to get their guard down, then they go in for the kill.

I likened these two shows to how alcohol and drugs almost swindled me out of my life. My addiction constantly told me lies. A ‘little drink’ wouldn’t get me drunk. It said, go ahead ‘get loaded, quit tomorrow’. It repeatedly announced, I was not an addict or alcoholic. And in the brief moments when I thought I really had a problem, the addict voice was louder and more powerful, saying it was not true. Anyone who said I had a problem was wrong and delusional.

I believed the lies, and continued to be conned; day by day, drink by drink, drug by drug, as life was deteriorating. Any and every relationship I had; be it friend, family or lover, blew up. But hey, ‘a drink can take away the pain’. To keep me in its grip, addiction handed me blinders.

It was not my decision to get sober, it was a power greater than myself, a divine intervention. I’m blessed to be a living, breathing woman in recovery. Don’t be swindled out of your life. If you make the choice to be in recovery, I guarantee it will save yours.