Addiction Questions

Let me be honest with all of you. I may not win any popularity contest by saying this, but I must say it…as I always do. …… Addiction is NOT a disease. If you buy into that nonsense, you are only giving yourself (or someone you love) a perfectly legitimate reason to continue to use or go back to using. Notice I don’t use the term “relapse” because that word insinuates an incurable disease process. Let me do this the “coachy” way and ask you a few questions to ponder.

Would you rather wake up and smell the coffee or suffer die in your addiction?

Would you rather give yourself or a loved one legitimate hope that there complete healing is right in front of their nose, or would you prefer going to their funeral or preparing for your own?

Why do so many of you choose to believe in addiction as a disease when there is absolutely no concrete proof of this; It’s only a theory?

What is “denial”? Do you feel you could be in some type of “denial”?

Do you want to get over your addiction or see a loved way get past their addiction?

Do you believe in Almighty God and do you know His precise Name? What is His Name?

Are you afraid to get over your addiction?

Is your substance your best friend in the whole world or do you understand it to be your worst enemy?

Write me if you need some help with these answers. Your very soul is at risk.

Sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, most rehabs, physicians, paramedicals, some religious adherents, and government agents see addictive behavior as being criminal or sinful. These kinds of social judgments do little to help the addicted person, yet, they DOe cause harm, making the addict feel shameful, weak, or helpless. Suddenly he feels like a child who wets the bed, or cannot control his impulse to explore, and then is shamed or punished. Trying to demand or force a behavior which is in direct conflict with the natural drives and motivations of the individual is dangerous.

It will usually worsen his situation, potentially driving the addicted person to suicide, or overdose. But for the lucky ones, and those who are strong enough, this kind of malpractice will only lead the addict to psychological misery, self loathing, and submission.

However, if we can’t stop the treatment handicap of misdirected and harmful philosophies, we can improve our treatment success by having each different addiction well differentiated, and then approached individually and uniquely. Very few programs help the individual find a better life after cleaning up, and even fewer address the needs met by the drug before addiction….the psychological undertones that caused addiction in the first place. These rewards are emotional and motivational in nature, usually unconscious.

Counselors and others in the field of service today, assume that we are driven by social or philosophical goals, but this is because they don’t quite understand that our most powerful, important, and influential human drives are within the mid or lower brain functions, mostly unconscious, and seldom more than moderately tempered by the higher cortical functions. But it is in the rational, higher cortical world that sociology and philosophy operate.

That is why when social psychologists or counselors try to help addicted individuals deal with addictive motivations it’s like the blind, leading the blind. Of course the counselors, and social psychologists still get paid, so, at the end of the day it’s usually about money anyway.

What was the nature of the original motivation and emotional reward of the drug before it became addictive ? The reason that this point is so critically important is because treating drug addiction is next to impossible unless the motivation and reward for the first repeated use is identified. In other words…what were the triggers? Sometimes we can modify the addictive behavior by presenting an alternate kind of reward for behaving differently, but usually we must find a non-addictive behavior which attains the same reward or a motivationally preferred combination.

Those who are addicted to multiple substances, are especially difficult to treat. Dual addiction is commonly referred to as addiction to two addictive substances. Clinically, however, it also refers to addicted individuals who also have a mental illness. Multiple and dual addictions are especially difficult to treat because addicts may sidestep crises by switching to a legal addictive substance for a short time. Legal drugs such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, acetylcholine or any one of a thousand prescription drugs, easily available through doctors who are unaware of an addict’s history, often allow an exponential increase in addictive behavior, denial, and other psychological disorder. Drugs used to treat mental disorders may worsen an addiction. Many people treated for mental sickness are only substance abusers, and vise-versa. Our neuroendocrine axis can’t discern legal from illegal drugs, and often doctors can make addiction worse with prescriptions of pain medications, antidepressants, muscle relaxers, and many others.

Making treatment even more difficult is the fact that an addict may switch to a kind of psychological addiction which is combined with one of these socially acceptable drugs. An addict in a highly addictive spin cycle, may use prozac, herbs or tobacco, while becoming psychologically addicted to danger, sex, work, television, or other compulsive behaviors. Although most social agencies welcome such shifts in behavior, the cycle of addiction will continue to worsen, while sublimated.

We must know whether the addicted person has found a way of life which meets his emotional and motivational needs, and whether or not the cycle of addiction has ceased. If he has only sublimated his addiction in some other form, then it will probably resurface at some later date with a more ravenous expression of addiction or an even less attractive form of psychosis, depression, or criminal behavior. This side-step dance only prolongs the addicted individual’s psychological crisis and will cost society more eventually, with chronic health or incarceration expenses.

Therefore, each addictive substance, and dual forms of addiction, must be looked at and treated differently…unidquely. And each addict’s individual situation and history is of primary importance in his treatment plan. We could well begin by treating addiction differently, for each type or class of substance is psychologically different. Each has a different type of emotional and motivational reward and different neural or hormonal action.