Addiction is a powerful! Maybe the most powerful escape from distressful feelings.
Psychological reasons we might get addicted-
So what does addiction protect us from—even if, eventually, at great cost?
Experts agree that individuals with mental or emotional issues—such as anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, post-traumatic stress, bipolar and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders—are more likely to become addicted.
Plus, they’re prone to all kinds of addiction, not simply substances like alcohol, drugs (prescribed, over-the-counter, and illicit), and nicotine. They could also be hooked on eating, shopping, gambling, a dysfunctional relationship—or bird-watching.
Even bird-watching could be considered "addictive" if it throws one’s life out of balance. What’s crucial to understand is that whatever individuals are addicted to, they’re engaged in excessively, so it’s clearly harmful to them.
If avoidance enables them to better cope with painful feelings, it’s all too easy for it to take hold of them and become habitual. And that’s when the behavior can rightfully be considered addictive. It’s a form of destructive self-medication to numb against unpleasant symptoms.
There are certain personality qualities that also contribute to this, such as sensation-seeking and impulsivity.
It should be obvious that we’re all subject to addiction.
There are so many substances and activities that activate the reward centers of our brain. And it’s only human to want to feel good, to gravitate toward pleasure and away from pain—especially if we’re bored with life or lack the skills to cope with misfortune.
Dopamine is the chemical that drives most behavior.
It’s not just that it advances what’s vital to our survival—like eating, sleeping, and sexual expression—but that its inherent pleasure-inducing elements promote addiction and dependency.
Its dopamine that hormonally allows the person to escape what’s bothering them.
Over time a persons reward system is unnaturally increased by their chosen drug or habit. And at this point, what was once rewarding, no longer is. Guaranteeing that the person—no longer at choice—will need to turn to their addiction if they want to experience any pleasure.
What originally felt like a lucky win is an absolute loss. Although more than ever, they’ll desperately seek to reestablish the good feelings now weakened, has a different motive: to reestablish balance.
And here, our body wins over our mind, now dysregulated, involuntarily addicted, and out of alignment with our true nature.
The reason so many experts consider addiction to be a disease is that, biochemically, our brain’s normal function and structure are hijacked, no longer permitting us to have control over our dysfunctional behavior.
In the end, when we can no longer get high practicing our addiction, we may still be driven to engage in it just to feel sane or to avoid the physical and psychological suffering of withdrawal.
In fact, efforts to stop may turn into intense cravings. “Mind over matter” can’t work for us because addiction changes how our brain feels pleasure. It alters our personality, now destined to focus almost exclusively on the addictive object.
Only when the underlying causes of addiction are identified and addressed can it be successfully treated long-term. Typically this can’t be done on our own but requires outside help. Because we are feeling even worse about ourselves when we’re not using, we employ all sorts of rationalizations and justifications to continue our habit.
It can’t be stressed enough that having an addiction doesn’t represent a moral failing or character flaw.
The least effective way of remedying an addiction is through punishment, humiliation or attaching consequences to it.
How could these methods possibly work when it was most likely a person’s shame-based identity that got them to become addicted in the first place?
Since addiction is currently described as a chronic disease, treating it has less to do with permanently curing it than effectively managing it.
Relapse is always possible, so the individual must learn everything possible about how in their particular case it can be controlled.
Once anyone is motivated to alter their behavior, their addiction can be successfully addressed.
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