Sunday, April 12, 2009

Addiction is your choice

Here’s the terrifying thought, you choose to be an addict, an alcoholic, a junkie. Why, because you have problems in living that you need to avoid.
Huge contentious statement that comes from Jeffrey Schaler and from me, as it makes a lot of sense in my experience.
The notion of addiction started in the 18th century and has now gripped the public imagination that you can be addicted to almost anything from Nicotine, Video games, through sex to shopping.
The popular view is that addiction is a disease, and follows the path of progressive use as you get desensitized to your addiction of choice, followed by being out of control and the only way to deal with this is total abstinence. As a disease which you suffer from there is a strong sense in which you are not responsible for your action. Such is the generally held view, and indeed evidenced in AA a major addiction treater.
A disease is categorised medically as having clinical evidence from a body. This would be where you can investigate the body and see the cause of the symptoms of the disease, such that you could get an asymptomatic disease. With addiction you cannot do this, whilst you can see the results of addiction, e.g. liver cirrhosis, you can never see the cause of it. Whilst some say there are genetic reasons that predispose us to addictions. Genetics cannot make something a disease, as otherwise ginger hair would be considered a disease.
An addict is a powerfully willed individual, who can quite ruthlessly manipulate the world and those around them to get what they want. They have a steely will that will not accept that any harm they may occur or those around them may suffer, will detract from their goal. Setbacks matter not, as they doggedly drive to their desire, their goal.
Try crossing out the word addict in the above paragraph, and put in entrepreneur.
Okay let’s play another game! What addiction is so powerful that when it leaves causes such bad withdrawal symptoms that it can cause suicide? Juliette would call it love I think, poor, loving, lonely girl.
So it would seem there are socially acceptable forms of addiction and non socially acceptable.
But which you choose benign or malign, a compulsion to own money or consume heroin, the issue is the same, there is a drive in you to use this behaviour to avoid having to deal with problems you have in your life.
The central point here in any addiction is that addicts have very strong wills, they choose very strongly. Heroin or money are inanimate, and cannot compel people to act. So why are people drawn to these thing, well they make them feel good. If you take heroin or alcohol, then both of them are anaesthetics, dull feelings and reduce pain. The acquisition of money can do the same sort of thing, to gain money is to win and many people will only feel loved or lovable if they are achieving, so the model is I feel bad about myself, I win I feel good.
So the addicts world model is I’m in pain, I must soothe the pain, I must take the drug. As time wears on the first two can get eroded, or replace by I’m in pain through missing the drug, I must soothe the pain.
Treatment of addicts is a question of doing 3 things. Firstly being with them in their worlds in a non judgemental fashion. Secondly showing them that they are choosing what they are doing and working out if this works for them. Thirdly dealing with issues that bring pain to them and work out ways to deal with it.
The part that I struggle with though, is why we choose addiction be it benign or malign in the first place. So many recovered addicts have replaced one addiction with another AA for booze, sport for drugs, politics for hedge funds.
I wonder if RD Laing’s sense of ontological insecurity has anything to do with it. That you need a constant stimulus as otherwise due to your fragile sense of yourself, you may well implode. So I must have an SMS, a drink, go to the gym, some stimulus just to keep myself alive.
There is also a very childish feeling about addiction. It says I must have something now or I just can’t bear it. Makes me think that being able to tolerate a little bit of discomfort is a good thing and that through delayed gratification you will not get hooked up in the cycle of addiction.
I guess the other thing about addiction is it gives identity, I’m a drunk. It absolves yourself of having to answer difficult questions, a workaholic doesn’t have to think about what to do next there is always a pre built answer.
Anyway I raise a glass from my addictions to yours

x

No comments:

Post a Comment