Please share this with anyone that you think might benefit from my experiences.
The Nature of Addiction
Why do so many people try to condemn and cast aside the people who have become victims of addiction?
I have had some extensive experience with addictive behaviour and any time, I think, is a good time as any to speak truthfully about it.
After a life time of substance abuse I came to realization that my life would end if I continued this path of behaviour. Some lifestyles tend to dissipate a person, debauchery, but I just figured there's only so many times you can go to to
the edge, like playing russian roulette, eventually you lose yer pumpkin,
death, jail or craazzee.
And regardless of this lifestyle fact, it is still a monumental effort of self motivation for a deeply addicted person
to realize the problem and follow through with the recovery of one's body and spirit. I think at the core, my first real step towards recovering was unconscious, in that I chose to pursue something of greater importance than myself, but ultimately for myself.
AA refers to this as a 'higher power' but for me it was simply wanting more to have an opportunity to 'be there': to watch and guide my child to grow.
What ever it is that you pursue that is greater in importance or meaning than your self will be unique to you, as well as how you go about the path of your pursuit.
Addictive behaviour is, at its core, a mal-condition of the body and spirit, and in my opinion, any wholesome and effective treatment will address both aspects of the patient. I refer to an addicted person as a patient
because this term implies that the person deserves compassionate treatment like any other medical condition that afflicts human beings.
It doesnt matter to me whether it's cookie dough, sex, drugs, or an i-phone. It is all addictive obsessive behaviour that starts from getting a little dopamine pleasure sensation in the brain. I think everyone has 'their little
addictive groove', just a matter of proportions and societal acceptance. Whole industries exist that rely on intimate knowledge of your physical responses to their product lines and the consequences of their use.
Nuther cookie? go ahead take 2 they're small...
Somewhere along the way, addictive behaviour usually results in a person acting destructively, whether by hook or crook, it comes down to making poor and ineffective decisions.
My personal experience with recovering from drug addiction has..IS taking a long time, looking back about 15 years to when I started and till now where I have been clean off hard chemical drugs for ??? years, I dont keep track. All together my path involved ?5 hospitalizations and 3 tries at drug treatment facilities until I 'got it' that despite all the help the only person who could get me free from harm was me.
Healthy body and mind, then healthy behaviours, then healthy ways of living, then becoming a whole healthy human being.
Human being or nut, bottom line is the problem starts with the dopamine chemical in the brain and the pleasure we experience, both physical and mental/spiritual.
Right from the moment you breath your first breath of air, dopamine is released in your brain :
and you breath again,
and you go to your Parent's warmth...again
and you drink nourishment... again...
and you live by repeating this natural hardwired pattern for behaviour even to the point of self destruction.
Drugs are particularly dangerous because of the extreme amounts of dopamine release, we've all heard of the lab rat that goes back for more until death, it is because of dopamine. After a while the cell receptors get used to certain amounts or get resistant so it takes more and more..
oops, boom-wink-gone (overdose>>death).
Dopamine's effect is universal as far as I can tell. It is a survival mechanism in our bodies to ensure we do what we need to do to survive. Too much or too little dopamine, and/or lets say inappropriate amounts and at inappropriate times, is counterproductive to our health and our interconnectedness in the real world.
To experience life and take risks is natural to our human spirit. When we go to extremes whether its balls out addictive behaviour, or extreme suppression of our nature, we invite spiritual sickness as well as physical danger. Many people want to go to extremes, in doing so we are wise to reduce risks and take advantage of safety nets rather than toot horns about condemnation, insurance and health costs.
For my part in the scheme of things, Im willing to encourage and support the recovery of individuals from addictive behaviour. To my way of thinking it would be heartless, without compassion, to use our natural state of slavery to dopamine as a reason for moral judgement and discrimination.
Not all is as it seems sometimes. And what I have written here is from my own experiences as I remember it, certainly not the beginning or ends of this very human condition. There is much more to be said about this many faceted issue that affects every single one of us,
despite ourselves.
