When a thought occurs to me, do I immediately act on it without considering the consequences? In what other ways do I behave compulsively?

This is old behaviour. Addiction is Compulsion.
I was compelled to buy drugs with money that was needed elsewhere. I felt compelled to take sexual actions that led immediately to shame and suffereing. I compulsively left jobs and relationships and cities, thinking I was solving problems, when of course, looking back I se simple addiction and its' consequences at work.

No longer. In meetings I have heard "Play the tape thru to the end". I can and do do this today. I no longer run my life Compulsivley. Thanks God

What is it like when I'm obsessed with something? Does my thinking follow a pattern? Describe.

"Obsessed"...To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single topic.
A. What's it like to be obsessed?
Hmmm. Back in the using days it was "normal". I was obsessed with drugs, perfectly described in the NA meeting pre-amble: "getting & using and finding ways and means to get more".

After 16 years of recovery, I find obsession to be unpleasant and am deeply suspicious of my mind doing this. I can get obssessed with people : A passing interaction with some random woman can see me obsessed; imagining scenarios that result in me selfishly experiencing her sexuality. Or some other interaction with (typically) a male that leaves me feeling disrespected and bitter; allowing me to sink into yet another pit of resentment. I have earnt many methods to avoid this ugliness.

• I pray for them.
• I write my petty bitterness on paper and burn prayerfully.
• I challenge my arrogance, that gives me seemingly god-like abilites to interpret the motives of others

B. Does my thinking follow a pattern?

Hmmm. Not so much a pattern of thinking, more a pattern of experience: My focus turns inward. I am no longer living in the moment, allowing life's sounds and sights and feelings to move past me: The focus moves inside my head, switching from my memory of the whatever caused the pain to projections of vengeance.

Has my disease been active recently? In what way?

OF Course! In meetings I've heard: "Even when I'm not using, my disease is "out_the_back_doing_push-ups"", meaning my disease is always preparing for the day it gets to run my show again. Yet more specifically? Yes, my disease has been active recently:
I no longer see my disease as simply "Using Drugs". My disease is more subtle, more pernicious today. Surfing the internet looking at photo's of naked women, and negatively comparing them to the reality of the loving and real woman in my life today is also "diseased"; and I have done this again just last night. This could be the begining of a general dissatisfaction that will ultimately lead me to sabotaging all the good in my world. I know this thru past experience, not just coz... "I been told". I will talk to my sponsor about this AND ask my Dog for help (Dog being my quirky name for my Higher Power: God as some call him).

All forms of general dis-satifaction are my diseaseactively at work.

• thinking my job is not paid enough,
• that I don't get the recognition I deserve
• that my kid's don;t text ot ring me 'enough'...
• that i havn;t yet had enough sex partners (and should thus ditch the Mrs and go get MORE