There’s been quite a bit of news lately about Tiger Woods and how his golf game has become a mere shadow of what it once was. Plagued by injuries dating back to 2008, Woods has been struggling more than not with his game since. While there was once constant speculation on how much time it might take for him to win more championships than Jack Nicklaus, many are now just wondering if he’ll ever win a single one again. Woods continues to tell reporters that his injuries are what are preventing that, but I have a different theory and it relates to an addiction Woods and I have shared in common.
On February 19, 2010, Tiger Woods made his first public statement admitting he suffered from a sex addiction. Ironically, it was only two months later that I would openly declare the same of myself. The interesting thing about a sex or love addiction is that it usually goes untreated for years until something extremely severe brings it to light. In Woods’s case, it was getting caught cheating on his wife. In my case, it was due to all the constant pain I was feeling on a daily basis because of it and that’s specifically what I believe is going on with Woods.
Over the years, I’ve had several wonderful spiritual teachers who have taught me a very valuable principle about pain. They each told me that pain is a great indicator for when I might not be listening to what my soul is trying to tell me. They explained that pain begins on a spiritual level when we’re doing something that’s not in alignment with our greatest highest good. And the more we do whatever that unhealthy something is, the more our pain will shift from a spiritual level to that of a mental and emotional one. But ultimately, as we continue to do whatever it is that’s not in alignment with our highest potential, the more our pain will shift from a mental and emotional level to that of a physical one. This is specifically what happened to me the more I engaged in my own sex and love addiction behaviors.
I remember the first time I had a quick “hook up” with someone that fed my sex and love addiction. While there was an incredible high in all the moments that led up to it, I felt completely off and unclean in some way when it was over. Even after taking a shower, I still hadn’t felt quite right inside. It took some time after that first experience for me to act upon that addiction again, but when I did, I had that same feeling inside all over again. As the years went on, I’d repeat these unspiritual behaviors again and again until I began to deal with waves of depression and anxiety, as well as many moments of doubt, insecurity, and shame. Yet, I never attributed any of that to my sex and love conduct as I always had a justification for those behaviors. So instead of looking at what I was doing in that area of my life, I got prescribed medications to balance my moods out. That only led me right back into my sex and love addiction, until I started suffering from various physical ailments and injuries. For years I attempted to treat each of them as just a physical problem, but eventually I realized something more was going on. I began seeing that my spirit had been trying to tell me all along how unhealthy and unspiritual my sex and love behaviors were.
It tried to tell me this on a spiritual level, but I never listened.
It then tried to tell me this on a mental and emotional level, but I still never listened.
It wasn’t until it communicated this to me on a physical level in such a direct way, that I began to do something about it.
Over the past few years, I’ve worked diligently on recovering from my sex and love addiction and have learned that I’ll heal in the same order I got sick. Initially, I had to work on developing a much closer relationship with my Higher Power. Once I started understanding more of what my Higher Power’s will was for me, I began living my life in that way. The more I did that, the more I found all those crazy moods swings dissipating. I eventually stopped needing those mood-balancing medications entirely because of it. Currently, I’m working on the final stage of this healing process, which is the one that drove me into it in the first place, and that’s the physical one. I believe all the physical pains I’m still dealing with are the remains of the toxins coming out of me from all my former unspiritual sex and love escapades. I’m convinced that when all the remnants of them are removed, my physical body will feel 1000 times better.
Looping all of this back around to Tiger Woods, it’s my belief that all his physical pains and injuries that began back in 2008 have always been his higher self’s attempt to get him to look at his sex addiction. Even though he made an admittance of his addiction publicly and subsequently entered a treatment program, I’ve often wondered what he’s since done for his recovery on a daily basis, as it’s not something that ever goes away.
The only thing that’s kept my sex and love addiction behaviors completely at bay and in remission has been a much deeper relationship with my Higher Power. Nurturing that has completely reversed this disease and led me on that path of spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical healing from it. It’s my hope that Tiger Woods will stop focusing so much attention on his physical recovery like I once tried to do, and instead start focusing more on growing his relationship to a Higher Power. As only then did I find healing from this toxic addiction, and only then do I believe Tiger Woods will be able to fully step out of that shadow and injury-prone cycle to finally return to the top of his golf game.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson