This picture below represents the way many people experience life, as a set of stairs that begin in childhood and lead on, up, and away from the starting point.  How far you may choose to climb will be influenced by genetics, health, and circumstance.

This next represents the way addicts often experience life, as a set of steps that always return to the same point. Climbing these stairs enough can bring feelings of cynicism, resentment, impotency, anxiety, and paralysis.

The third is the way people who have had a trauma or addiction to survive may experience life, as a set of stairs that spiral around a central point. The central aspects (trauma or addiction) never recede into the past like the bottom steps on the ‘normal’ stairs, but remain ‘alongside’ you as  you climb.

.