June 11, 2025
Hossein,
Great to hear from you. I am doing well, writing you from the Chestnut offices in Chicago. Appreciate the photo you sent. We’re busy this week writing up several grants, but it’s nice to step away to ponder the questions you sent me.
What is addiction?
Admittedly, as I’ve mentioned to Ehsan, I carry a 12-step (i.e., AA/NA) bias. Those programs saved my life, so it’s hard to not see things through that lens. My experience has led me to believe that addiction is primarily a spiritual affliction. By spiritual, I prefer the definition from George Vaillant, that spirituality is “the amalgam of … positive emotions that bind us to other human beings—and to our experience of ‘God.’” I’m not sure where it came from, maybe trauma, or some other circumstances, but at an early age I began to feel alienated from other people. I could no longer see myself as a part of a whole. This creating a nagging feeling of emptiness, a void, that drove me to seek out something that would make me feel different – first in compulsive behaviors, then drug use.
Is there a definitive cure for addiction?
This aspect of Congress 60 I admit I have struggled with. For my personal recovery path, I believe I will need to be involved in a recovery program for the rest of my life. And I very much look forward to this, it doesn’t feel like a fight or struggle for me. For me, addiction is beyond physical, though I agree with your philosophy that an X system, something corporeal, is involved. I believe that my spiritual condition needs to be treated on a regular basis, or else I will lose touch with other people, then God (something greater than myself), then seek out those behaviors to replace spiritual connection. However, I don’t doubt that a cure could exist. Something that completely removes the desire to use drugs is well within the realm of possibilities. But then, I think, the real work must begin – to work on the ego. This is why I am happy to see your program exist. It seems to breed community, which is the cure, for me, to a sick ego.
Talking with Ehsan on my podcast this week, I was struck by the notion that Congress 60 is special for being the first program I’m aware of to properly balance medicine (i.e., the DST method) and a peer- or community-based method of recovery. For all of my personal bias towards 12-step groups, I know they’ve struggled with how to handle medication and stigma has plagued them. Your program gives me hope for new opportunities.
If this feels like fruitful content for your website, I am happy with you publishing our correspondence. Look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Bell