Addictions versus Choices
Question: Is an addiction a personal choice or a chemical/physiological uncontrollable impulse?
For me this is a seriously difficult question. I know some people out there believe that addictions can be easily overcome by nothing more then willpower.
Yet everyday in the ER I work in I see meth users and alcoholics. They stand on street corners getting handouts "for food" and spend that money getting drunk or high. Never eating , or caring for themselves. I know some alcoholics that binge drink on the weekends. Never drinking at all when they have to be ready for work. It is ruining there lives and yet they still choose to do it. Is it by choice? Or is it a compulsion that overrides their thought processes to where there is no choice any longer? Why are some people able to overcome this compulsion and others can not?
To me an addiction is something you can not controlled by ordinary means. In other words, a person can not simply say I will not smoke anymore, and walk away. It takes using a method of some sort to rewire yourself to no longer crave or desire the bad substance or activity you find so pleasing.
Most addictions create higher levels of hormones in the pleasure center of the brain. These increased levels create the feeling similar to those found after and exceptionally good round of sex. When we have an orgasm hormones flood the brain create an enormous feeling of happiness and well being. We get these feelings from eating foods, drinking, taking drugs, looking at pornography. It is found that most addicts need to keep those levels high to fight their own personal lowered production of hormones. That is what makes it harder for them to quit. They have a hard time functioning without those huge releases. Just ask any 2 pack a day smoker how bad they feel without their cigarettes.
Sex addicts and porn addicts I think have it the worst. Our society finds nothing "wrong" with someone that enjoys a lot of sex. As long as its within certain limits. As for porn, few men or women feel its wrong to spend hours looking at strange men and women naked on the Internet. I would even go as far as saying, at least from a female perspective, that men encourage other men to look at it. Personally, I know very few women that enjoy watching it and masturbating to it, like men do.
I guess my feeling is that their are some people out there that can not control the urges due to physiologic changes. As well as others that can control it and choose not too.
How do we know which one our loved one is? So, how do we go about helping our family and friends? Do we take the hard line and tell them they must change or leave? Do we suggest therapy or hospitalization? What if everything we try does not work? What then?
What if the addiction is one that your life partner finds particularly repugnant? Like a porn addiction. How should that partner feel when they walk in on them masturbating to the computer, yet have not had sex with you in weeks? What should their final straw be?
For me this is a seriously difficult question. I know some people out there believe that addictions can be easily overcome by nothing more then willpower.
Yet everyday in the ER I work in I see meth users and alcoholics. They stand on street corners getting handouts "for food" and spend that money getting drunk or high. Never eating , or caring for themselves. I know some alcoholics that binge drink on the weekends. Never drinking at all when they have to be ready for work. It is ruining there lives and yet they still choose to do it. Is it by choice? Or is it a compulsion that overrides their thought processes to where there is no choice any longer? Why are some people able to overcome this compulsion and others can not?
To me an addiction is something you can not controlled by ordinary means. In other words, a person can not simply say I will not smoke anymore, and walk away. It takes using a method of some sort to rewire yourself to no longer crave or desire the bad substance or activity you find so pleasing.
Most addictions create higher levels of hormones in the pleasure center of the brain. These increased levels create the feeling similar to those found after and exceptionally good round of sex. When we have an orgasm hormones flood the brain create an enormous feeling of happiness and well being. We get these feelings from eating foods, drinking, taking drugs, looking at pornography. It is found that most addicts need to keep those levels high to fight their own personal lowered production of hormones. That is what makes it harder for them to quit. They have a hard time functioning without those huge releases. Just ask any 2 pack a day smoker how bad they feel without their cigarettes.
Sex addicts and porn addicts I think have it the worst. Our society finds nothing "wrong" with someone that enjoys a lot of sex. As long as its within certain limits. As for porn, few men or women feel its wrong to spend hours looking at strange men and women naked on the Internet. I would even go as far as saying, at least from a female perspective, that men encourage other men to look at it. Personally, I know very few women that enjoy watching it and masturbating to it, like men do.
I guess my feeling is that their are some people out there that can not control the urges due to physiologic changes. As well as others that can control it and choose not too.
How do we know which one our loved one is? So, how do we go about helping our family and friends? Do we take the hard line and tell them they must change or leave? Do we suggest therapy or hospitalization? What if everything we try does not work? What then?
What if the addiction is one that your life partner finds particularly repugnant? Like a porn addiction. How should that partner feel when they walk in on them masturbating to the computer, yet have not had sex with you in weeks? What should their final straw be?
My own outlook on addiction is completely mental. It takes a stream of willpower and determination to quit something that you are "tied" to. The first step is, as it should be, wanting to quit. If there is no desire to quit, then you are still going to be bound to do it.
ReplyDeleteA step program for instance can only show you a path to completion. At the end of the day, it will all be paved by your desire to quit. Relapse happens if you don't have the sheer willpower to stop the "compulsion". The same goes for therapy. Your therapist/teacher will only allow you to talk about your issue, after that they ask you if you want to quit. They can make you realize that you want to quit (and you didn't realize it before), or have you discern that your actions are impacting another negatively. Your sympathy for the feelings of the other person would drive you to want to quit, but you still need to make the choice about if their feelings outweigh your desire to quit.
It's really all about perception, desire, and willpower. Quitting is mental because addiction is fictional.
Someone could always get addicted to something else (that helps them), like running.