Addiction: A Different Approach
Addiction: A Different Approach
Research indicates that 90 – 95% of individuals who enter a drug or alcohol treatment program will relapse. With such low success rates, something is obviously wrong with our healthcare systems. Something has to be missing! I believe two reasons exist for this phenomenon: 1) A Misunderstanding of the true nature of addiction, and the “one size fits all” approach, ignoring individualism. Secondly, I believe treatment models over-emphasize reducing the individual’s problems, and not enough on growing the individual’s spirit. I do understand the need to eliminate the problem at hand, but that’s only a small part of the situation, what about growth?
The “one size fits all” predicament says that addiction is disease. To call addiction a disease would imply that addiction is genetically inherited and that our genes determine addiction. This is completely false! There are plenty of people who become addicts and have no family history of addiction. Addiction is a learned behavior, it is that simple. Although it is true that children of alcoholics are more inclined to become alcoholics, this too is a learned behavior. Research has actually found that many children of alcoholics actually end up avoiding drinking all together due to the negative behaviors witnessed by their parents (Peele & Brodsky, 1991)
So, if addiction is a learned behavior then the question that remains is “how to unlearn” the addictive behavior. Before learning how to “unlearn” addictive behaviors, it must be recognized that addiction or any undesired behavior pattern is an attachment. Attachments have been long used by Eastern religion to describe the unhealthy desires that enslaves our minds, actions, and eventually our souls. Buddhism says that to live, means to suffer and suffering comes from attachments. In other words, we live our whole lives seeking a state of peace and happiness through objects of our desires; food, relationships, money, etc, yet nothing ever seems to be enough. The more we get, the more we want, and on and on the cycle goes. It is the same theory Christianity tells us in the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. It was Eve’s desire for the forbidden fruit that opened the door for temptation and sin.
Once an addiction takes control of mind, it becomes a cat and mouse race to bring back that same feeling that drugs once did, but instead it just becomes one painful illusion. At this point, only two things can happen: let go of that attachment, or keep chasing the illusion (Lozoff, 2007) . The first step in breaking free from this illusion is to develop self-awareness and mindfulness. In life, most people tend to take the path of least resistence. People who practice mindfulness choose the path of intention. They live their lives based on what feels right, rather than what feels easiest (Lozoff, 2007). People who develop self-awareness and mindfulness have a deep sense of understanding, they flow through life with a certain momentum that always seems to be right on.
The reality is that desire is a natural a part of human nature; everyone desires to achieve a state of well being and a sense of comfort and joy. For the addict, this state of wellbeing is found in substance use. This is the same feeling that athletes call “the zone” or the way musicians and dancers get lost in their performance. It is the same state of mind that religious people find in deep prayer or spiritual people find in meditation. The difference between the addict and the athlete, artist, etc. is freedom. Addictions are attachments that lack freedom; they are compulsions that can take over one’s life.
When we begin to let go of attachments, more room for spiritual growth opens up. This leads me to the second problem in many treatment programs. Living with mindfulness requires living in the present moment. Lozoff (2007) describes this as “ if we’re not trying to hold on to the past, and jockeying into a positive future, then we finally belong in the world as it exists in the present moment, the eternal now” (p. 18). Too many treatment programs focus on what went wrong in the past and what will go wrong in the future if one begins using again, rather than focusing on what is going on in the “now”. Addicts, for the most part, are so far into their addiction, that the reasons and causes don’t even matter anymore because it has become a cycle of one thing after the other. I realize that the consequences of relapsing are important as well, but again, most addicts already know the consequences of their addictions. Treatment programs have to concentrate more on building the individual back up to feeling human again.
Recovery is about change, and change happens in small, positive steps. We have learned from the false promises of the weight loss industry that quick fix diets do not