Nov 11,2019
Dear Hossein,
I want to provide a quick response to your email before heading to the conference this week.
Below are brief responses to your questions.
What is addiction?
Addiction is a disorder whose central manifestation is the prolonged and compulsive use of drugs (or another life-dominating behavior) in spite of growing harm to self and others from such activities. It is characterized by physical craving, obsessive thinking about the loved substance, excessive amounts of time involved in procuring the substance and avoiding consequences related to use of the substance, and a progressive disconnection from people and other life interests. In spite of these central characteristics, addiction rises from different etiological pathways, unfolds in diverse patterns, varies in course and outcome, and is marked by multiple pathways and styles of long-term recovery.
The social meaning of addiction has been obscured by reference to people being addicted to chocolate (or other foods), addicted to other objects (e.g., money), addicted to particular activities (e.g., jogging), or addiction to people (toxic relationships). The term in the U.S. has come to mean any activity that is pleasurable, repetitive, and harmful.
Who is a drug abuser or addict?
To be addicted to drugs is to have one’s body, mind, emotions, and character possessed by a drug or other compulsive activity. The addicted person is no longer in control of how they think, feel, and act. Personal values are distorted as the drug becomes the central if not exclusive priority in their life. Values are distorted as the person becomes increasingly self-encapsulated. Addiction is dominated by selfishness, grandiosity, blaming and resentment of others, lying, anger, bitterness, and hopelessness. In recovery these values evolve toward honesty, humility, gratitude, forgiveness, tolerance, respect, and service to others.
What is psyche?To me, Psyche embraces perceiving, thinking, feeling, and valuing, all of which are transformed through the addiction and recovery processes. Addiction distorts how we see the world and ourselves, our capacity for critical thinking and problem solving, our ability to express emotion and the content of those emotions, and the personal values trough which our daily decisions are made. The metaphor of the “hijacked brain” is popular in the U.S. to depict the loss of personal control in addiction, bit it may be more apt to say the whole person has been hijacked or possessed. Addiction literature across the world conveys addiction as a devil, monster, beast, or dragon that takes over one’s life and against which one must do battle. These images help make sense of what is experienced as impending insanity in the face of repeatedly acting against one’s own values, needs and interests and the needs of loved ones.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill