Addiction Essay Example For Students

Addiction Essay Addiction: Its A Neurological DisorderAddiction is a neurologically based disease. For many years recovery specialists have compared alcoholism or addictions to a physical disease: like diabetes. In reality addictions are more closely related to a neurological disorder like Tourettes Syndrome* than they are to diabetes. If the problems you suffer stem from severe alcoholism or addiction, you must accept that these problems are not primarily mental or free will issues. Addictions are not about will power. The problems facing addicts, alcoholics, and their families are miserable, disgusting, and infuriating. They are often hopelessly discouraging. But to imagine that an addict could change if he wanted to is a serious misunderstanding of the long term dynamic of addictive disorder. The fact is precisely that an addict cannot change in the long run even if he wants to! That is the definition of addiction: the loss of control over the use of a substance. It is important to understand that this loss of control is manifested not in terms of days or weeks, but in longer term behaviors: terms of months and years. The reason addicts have lost control is because they have suffered permanent physical neurological changes based in their brains and nervous systems. The disorder manifests in long term obsessive-compulsive behaviors outside the realm of the addicts own control. It is true enough that the use of chemicals begins with chosen behavior. But if alcoholism or addiction develops, the problem has moved outside the realm of free choice. It has developed into a long term mental and physical neurological disorder. All the emotional feelings involved in drug or alcohol seeking are based in neurology. Addiction is based in physical dependency created by altered neurotransmitter balances, and driven by millions upon millions of new living, functioning active neurological pathways which have been established to sustain the condition in the addicts brain. The new neurological pathways are permanently established, and they will not just disappear. The primary neurological disorder is only complicated by physical dependence on the substances. The physical dependence on the substances is secondary! Physical drug withdrawal does not change the underlying neurological addictive disorder. After drug withdrawal, long term overpowering cravings are predictable. These cravings are, in reality, spontaneous nerve impulses. Even in the longer term, overwhelming cravings are outside the addicts control. Example of a Nerve PathwayIt is difficult for people to grasp the meaning of a nerve pathway, or why this is related to addiction. Often when people hear a new idea like: an addictive impulse is the result of a nerve impulse they are left unsympathetic. Addicts and non addicts alike have a hard time believing that drug or alcohol use is anything more than a choice that is made in response to a habit. Deep down inside, most people believe that at its root the behavior is always a choice. They are very, very wrong. This author was stuck in addiction for over a decade, so completely was he convinced that the mind was an immaterial spiritual power and that to call alcoholism or addiction a disease was a cop-out for the weak-willed. This author believed that each and every time free choice was at the root of addictive behavior. Until one day, in another recovery facility the author stumbled upon the concept of neuro-pathways by reading a book called The Training of the Will by a Jesuit priest. That book was written in the early 1900s. Even then, the Jesuits knew that the root of almost all behavior was based not in free will but in neurological wiring. For the Jesuits, training the will essentially consists in training the body. After reading that book, this author began to understand that while his mind his intellect was indeed an immaterial power, the overwhelming cravings for drugs or alcohol were based in his body. He came to believe that addiction really was a neurological disease. Consider the following: Most people can not wiggle their ears. The wiggling of the ears is really nothing but flexing the muscles of the scalp above the ears. The reason most people can not wiggle their ears is because they are not familiar with the neurological pathway which controls the muscle of the scalp above their ears. However, without exception, every person in the world can be trained to wiggle their ears. Simply by applying electrodes to the muscles of the scalp above the ears causes the muscles to flex, or spasm. Once the person feels where these muscles are, he finds that in fact he CAN wiggle his ears. The only reason he could wiggle his ears before, was because he had not established the neurological pathway which enabled him to do so. Like turning on a switch a neurological pathway can be established simply by passing a charge of electrical current into the nerves of the body. Once a person has learned to wiggle his ears he might actually do it spontaneously and unintentionally just because the words are mentioned. This example is intended to illustrate how a simple neurological pathway is established. Before the electrode there was no neurological pathway. After the electrode the pathway has been established. The addictive neurological response to drugs and alcohol on the brain is infinitely more complex than this, but the physical basis is the same. The overwhelming craving for drugs or alcohol that endlessly defeats addicts is in reality a neurological impulse and they have absolutely no control over the craving when it is triggered. All they know is that they want, they need, they feel they MUST have the drug. This desire, this craving is not a free choice. This desire is an electro-chemical neurological brain impulse. A person who suffers from these cravings to the detriment of his own life, and the lives of others, is suffering from a physical, neurological disease termed addictive disorder. Recovery from AddictionWithdrawing from physical dependence on the drug does not change the fundamental addictive disorder. The Development and Control of Chemical and Biolog Essay But, a radical dependency shift must be effected within the addicts own heart and mind. He must psychologically shift away from relying on the validity of his own thought process about his addiction! To effectively re-wire his disordered nervous system, he must come to rely fiercely and absolutely upon the directions provided from an external support system. By mentally changing what he relies upon, his nervous system undergoes a profound change. Consider this example: Two new people attend a support meeting. (Its not the type of meeting, or support group, that is important.) The first person thinks to himself: I dont want to be here. These people are unattractive. The thought of having to associate with them forever disgusts me. He is now depending upon the validity of his own internal thought process. He drives away, and continues to try to stay clean on his own, and to continue to depend on the validity of his own thought process. Then he has sorrowful trouble in his relationships, which break his heart. He fails to succeed as he thinks he ought to, which breaks his heart. Something bad happens, or something good happens, (it doesnt matter), and he thinks to himself: I cant deal with sobriety right now! (This is the person depending upon the validity of his own thought process.) His addictive impulse is triggered. In a matter of time the strong cravings (neurological impulses) overwhelm him and he begins to use again. Now, consider the second person who attends the support meeting. He also thinks to himself: I dont want to be here. These people are unattractive. The thought of having to associate with them forever disgusts me. But, this person says OUT LOUD to the group: I dont want to be here! You people seem unattractive! The thought of having to associate with you disgusts me! And the whole group, with one voice says to him in reply: Thats how you are supposed to feel! Thats OK! You should feel that way! Youre new! This is new! We are unattractive! The thought of associating with us should disgust you! Its OK to feel that way. But, from now on you must become willing to take directions! You must become willing to listen to us! You can NOT be in control of your own addiction anymore! You must let go absolutely, and no longer depend upon your own devices, or you will never recover from your addiction! THIS PERSON ACCEPTS WHAT THEY SAY! He is willing to shift his internal dependency away from relying on himself for recovery. This begins to re-wire his neurology. His nervous system learns new responses to old stimuli. Then: he too has trouble in his relationships, which break his heart. He fails to succeed as he thinks he ought to, and this breaks his heart. He also thinks to himself: I cant deal with sobriety right now. BUT HE IS UNDER ORDERS! His habits kick in! He calls for support! The support system says with one voice: feeling bad IS ok .. . but using is NOT OK! You cant do that. You will not do that! You would be better to drive up right now to the local mental institution and check yourself in .. .. because what you are thinking about doing right now is sheer insanity! Because he has now shifted his dependency, and he no longer relies upon the validity of his own thought process, he obeys! He takes directions! The re-wiring of the dependency shift has taken hold: and he stays clean! He has established new neurological pathways and is able to stand fast through the critical moments. He has has effected the necessary dependency shift! His formerly disordered neurological system has become re-wired. When he is triggered, he automatically goes to the support system, even if it IS the local mental hospital, but he stays clean. Through a total dependency shift, he is soon permanently relieved of the obsession to use the chemicals. He recovers! Effecting this necessary dependency shift is most easily done through submission to programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. Any unwillingness to completely accept the directives of a support program just as it is presented, is just a continuation of the addictive disorder. Sadly, anyone who is special or who doesnt need to comply with a support program, (just as it is presented), will permanently suffer the misery of addiction. There can be NO permanent relief for anyone who cannot effect the requisite dependency shift. This is only happens when they stop depending on themselves to manage their own sobriety and they become fiercely willing to take directions. They must rely on the external support system more than they used to rely on the external chemical. For many, the 12 Step programs have been the best answer to addiction. In this authors opinion, it really is God who gets miserable alcoholics and addicts clean anyway. Though human beings have physical bodies, and live in a material world: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Human beings may be a complex mass of neurological pathways: but we are persons not rats! We may be deeply frustrated, or disappointed, or wounded. Though we may suffer terribly, we do have an infinite capacity to heal, to achieve, to love and be loved, to create and to contribute! No one deserves the misery of addiction. There is one who has all power, that one is God: may you find Him now! This article may be paraphrased, or referenced in the public domain, provided that the following reference is provided: Internet article: Addiction as Disease by David R. Hughes, 1997. URL http://www.medical-online.com/addict.htm