#3 Spirituality of Addiction

It is tragic how the addict can love their drug more than a spouse, children, employment, and the positive feelings derived from responsibility and respecting moderation.  It is essential to understand that active addiction also severs ties and openness to spiritual matters as there are few moments of true clarity.

Carl Jung believed that craving for alcohol was really a search for wholeness or union with God.  The Latin term for alcohol is spiritus and he remarked, "...you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison."  Most labels on distilled liquor still use the term Spirits of Alcohol.

Abraham Maslow commenting on the spiritual life stated that it is the basic component of “our biological life.”  Spiritual life constitutes the most essential humanity.  Leo Jampolsky notes that "addiction is a misdirected spiritual search that is rooted in a fundamental belief that I am not acceptable the way I am and there is a void that needs to be filled."  Addicts believe something external to themselves will fill this void. 

 Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, referred to alcoholism as a "soul sickness and a form of spiritual bankruptcy."  In addiction, the person has no real being or is a lost soul, disconnected from self, others, and God in a profound way. Addiction is a misguided state of being that seeks meaning, peace, and transcendence which are characteristics of spirituality.

Addiction is misguided because it seeks to replace God with allegiances to objects or attachments.  Spiritually, addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry. The objects of our addictions become our false gods. These are what we worship, what we attend to, where we primarily give our time and energy.

The Greek word (the original language of the New Testament) for soul is psyche and is the root for the concept of psychology. Addiction is often seen as soul sickness.  Kevin P. McClone has coined the term Psychospirituality of Addiction integrating psychological insights with the spiritual nature of addiction. 

Addiction generally involves toxic shame most often derived from abuse. The victim feels there is something defective about themselves and suffer feelings of worthlessness. Their God given dignity was damaged in the abuse and in a sense they carry the offenders shame who committed but has not been accountable about the abuse. This can occur in any stage of life, not just childhood. This also includes all trauma issues like dislocation, homelessness, oppression in war torn countries, spousal abuse, accidents, any PTSD etc.

James Reeves has written about The Emotional - Spiritual Principle in his book Refuge.

  1.Your spiritual growth will never go beyond 
     your emotional growth.

  2. You can never have a more intimate
      relationship with God  than you are 
      capable of having with other people.

  3. Your level of emotional maturity will 
      always create a ceiling for your spiritual
      maturity.

In an attempt to integrate the previous discussion, I understand addiction as a matter of uncertain identity. Identity in this sense consists roughly of what makes you unique and valuable as an individual and different from others. It is the way you see or define yourself, or the network of values and convictions that structure your life. 

My next post will discuss the dynamics of identity. 

#1 What is Addiction? (Part One)

For the past 16 months, I have been using this blog to keep my friends and supporters up to date on my activities. I am going to also start sharing information from the workshops I have been doing in Oregon, Washington  and Vancouver BC. I hope the content will create some interaction.

I have been motivated to understand addiction not only through my own recovery, but also by the research findings that one of eight people in North America is addicted to alcohol and / or other drugs. What is different about the one who is addicted from the other seven?  Is it about moral weakness, will power, genetics, psycho-social development, biological differences, or neuroscience? There are no easy answers, a variety of reasons, and that's part of what makes recovery so difficult. I intend to address all these possibilities.

ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) is the main governing organization of policies concerning addiction treatment certification standards and practice. They have recently re-defined how they see addiction.

ASAM Short Definition of Addiction:

Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.

Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.

ASAM no longer limits addiction to substance abuse, and is including other issues like gambling, shopping, computer gaming and pornography etc.  They include a spiritual component to addiction which is of primary importance to me and my readers.

I use the phrase drug addiction to include alcohol. Less formal ways I have described addicts over the years include, no stop switch once they start, can't guarantee their behavior when they use or drink, and when their use is a problem to those close to them they either don't moderate their use or abstain.Recreational users may abuse, but learn from the experience and change their use.

I believe understanding addiction requires a faith based and multi-disciplined approach integrating a Biblical Theology and spiritual disciplines with the sciences of Neuroscience, Biology, Genetics, and Psychosocial Development.

If you are interested in the complete and long form of the ASAM definition, I will be glad to email you a copy.

#2 What is Addiction? (Part Two)

All drugs are medication. Psychoactive drugs are substances that directly alter the normal functioning of the central nervous system. They pass the blood / brain barrier and alter perception, mood, consciousness, cognition and behavior. Drugs that are addictive are mood altering. They resemble the brain's own natural chemicals that influence how we act and feel.

 

Addiction is an attempt to transcend, pass over, mask, or numb out to the stressors of life. Temporarily, due to the chemical exchange of drugs and the brain, it feels like this has been accomplished. There are accompanying defenses and denial that helps fuel this delusion. However, it is short lasting, and the addict finds that actually he has added more pain to his life as the consequences of abusing drugs. Then the cycle continues. but eventually with more drugs, as tolerance increases in response to more emotional stressors as a consequence of drug abuse. Eventually, the addict can become fearful of trying to live without mood altering chemicals. When one quits the addiction to a particular drug or behavior addiction, it becomes very easy to substitute another addiction in its place. The list is not in any particular order.

                                    
                                            Tolerance

The body regards any drug it takes as a toxin and the liver and kidneys try to eliminate the drug. If the use continues, these organs are forced to adapt and develop tolerance and the user has to take larger and larger amounts to get the same effect. For example one amphetamine tablet will energize an effect that can only be matched by 100 tablets on the100th day of use.

Due to tolerance, addiction becomes progressive, and the dosage must be increased to transcend life's stressors as shown in the previous diagram.

But stressors become increased due to the difficulties caused by addiction and the cycle becomes a downward spiral.

                                       Reverse Tolerance

As one grows older, the trend is reversed and the user becomes less able to handle even moderate amounts. This is particularly true in alcoholics, when as the liver is destroyed, it loses the ability to metabolize the drug. An alcoholic with cirrhosis of the liver can stay intoxicated all day on a pint of wine because the raw alcohol is passing through the body unchanged.