The Fisherman's Hook

Guest post by Jon Agard

Do you have drive? There is no guideline for how to become successful. If you are not successful you will not be happy. You have to push yourself so you do not become stagnant. Where in a liberal rich family do you see a family that has adopted an African child? Money talks. Everybody wants instant gratification, like a hit from a cigarette.

Enjoy the company of others. Enjoy a good book. Be willing to sacrifice. Pain killers? The best pain killer is your own ability to denounce pain, to see the light. My tunnel is not going to be that long. When you accept Jesus Christ into your heart, you will be fulfilled. Do not submit to evil. Believe in yourself and close your mind to the Devil's temptations. What are the Devil's temptations for me? Pussy, money, weed, alcohol, cigarettes, and greed.

"Just this once!"

Emily Waltz reports in IEEE Spectrum,

Brain Stimulation Gives New Hope For Treating Psychiatric Disorders
Addiction, OCD, PTSD and depression: All of these conditions might be improved by stimulating one deep brain structure

Read more here.

Is the tech industry in the business of addiction?

Glenn Reynolds asked that question in USA Today last April. There is also a video at the link showing how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users' data to help Trump win the 2016 election.

The opposite of addiction is connection!

Chemical dependency? Happy and connected lives? In Viet Nam 20% of our troops were using loads of heroin. When they came home, 95% of them just stopped!

What if addiction isn't about being hooked on chemicals? What if addiction is about your cage? Is the person bonded and connected with others? If not, you will bond with something that will get you some sense of relief. Do you have bonds and connections you want to be present for? If you have a crisis in your life who will come to sit with you? Your Twitter followers? Your Facebook friends? No, it will be flesh and blood friends whom you have deep and nuanced face-to-face relationships with.

You are not alone. We love you! The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection!

https://t.co/elRVcHZFnf via @TEDTalks

— Robert Agard (@AgardRobert) February 11, 2018

More on the subject of addiction

More insight from Peter Hitchens on the "myth" of addiction:

Actions once punished or scorned are sympathetically treated as if they arose from diseases rather than choices. Persons repeatedly caught in possession of illegal drugs (a crime that in theory attracts a prison sentence of several years) are not punished according to law, but supplied by the authorities with clean needles, put into the care of doctors, and, in some jurisdictions, given free substitute drugs at the expense of the taxpayer.

It is no longer acceptable to disapprove of certain selfish and inconsiderate actions, some of them illegal. Of these alleged “addictions,” only the smoking of cigarettes is still disparaged by polite liberal-minded persons. This is probably because of its undoubted anti-social stink and foul mess, the huge shared cost of treating smokers for the diseases they voluntarily contract, and the alleged danger to nonsmokers exposed to its fumes.

As a result, huge numbers of supposed cigarette “addicts,” forced out of workplaces and bars and compelled to stand outside in pathetic gaggles, and frowned and coughed at when they light up in the privacy of their homes, have in recent years overcome their “addiction” and stopped smoking altogether. I personally know many such people. Several have been glad of the pressure to stop. It is interesting that the habit (as it used to be called) now tends to be commonest among the hopelessly poor, the ill-educated, and young women driven by fashion into seeking those tricky gifts which cigarettes still offer them—sexual allure and a pleasure that does not make them less thin.

Read more here.

"Addiction hijacks the brain"

Marc Lewis writes in Aeon,

...brains change with addiction.

...authorities warn us that addiction ‘hijacks the brain’, replacing the capacity for choice and self-control with an unremitting compulsion to drink or use drugs.

...Most obviously, addiction is characterized by a strong desire to pursue a substance or behavior. The substance or activity temporarily relieves the desire, but a negative emotional state is left in its wake, into which loss, disappointment and anxiety flow once the activity is finished or no longer satisfies – or once the drugs or booze are gone. And so, desire builds once again. In this way, addiction perpetuates the need it was intended to satisfy and, through repetition, the addict learns to satisfy the need by getting more, doing more, thus further consolidating the learning – and the neural patterns underlying it. What fires together wires together. Biology is not a prison, but you can’t flick it on and off with a switch.

Brian taught in a community college in Cape Town, ran a successful business, and generally used his fine mind to good advantage. But the pileup of obligations and a mild attention-deficit problem saw him begin taking various stimulants to stay awake and clear-headed. Within two years, he was smoking crystal meth several times per day. Sleep became sporadic and unpredictable. He could no longer think in straight lines, and fantastical whims soon replaced his customary rationality. His business fell apart, he moved in with his dealer, and his precious relationship with his young daughter turned into a parody of parenting, with him sneaking out to the car every hour or two for another hit. Meth comes on strong and brings with it clarity, optimism and brilliant energy. But Brian’s sleep loss meant that the high was increasingly short-lived. With the first hints of loss, he would grab for his pipe, eager beyond reason for another launch into stratospheric relief.

...Addiction isn’t about rationality or choice; it’s not about character defects or bad parenting, even though childhood adversity is clearly a risk factor. Addiction is about habit formation, brought on through recurring, self-reinforcing feedback loops. And although choice is not obliterated by addiction, it is much harder to break deep habits than shallow ones.

...Not every addict grows through and out of his or her addiction. Some remain enslaved for life, and some die. But the very stuckness of addiction, the redundancy and stupidity of chasing the same narrow goals each day, constitutes a worthy challenge for all that’s creative and optimistic in the human repertoire.

Read more here.

Should addicts be held responsible for their addictions? Apparently not, if they are single mothers!

Ann Coulter writes,

...the single strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is being raised by a single mother.

...Could any of the compassion being lavished on drug addicts be extended to their helpless children?

No. Poor little Emma Lee must stay with Amanda, so that we can really drive home the point that unmarried women CANNOT be held responsible for getting pregnant and drug addicts CANNOT be held responsible for their addictions. Innocent children are pawns in America’s endless project of promoting women’s self-esteem.

...Most compassionate of all is Trump’s policy to build a wall and deport Mexican drug dealers, so that Americans with this “disease” won’t be able to catch it in the first place.

...Only defenseless little babies are being forced to stay with manifestly unfit mothers — in order to burnish the drug addict’s self-esteem. Ruining a child’s life is part of the addict’s recovery plan.

Read more here.

Rehab

h/t rdbrewer

The allure of victimhood

Jesse James writes,

A rational person cannot explain how an individual can chant ‘Love Trumps Hate’ while burning things in the street or beating someone half to death for their political views. An addict is more than capable of that about face without a second thought.

What could hundreds of thousands of people of every race, color and creed be addicted to? Victimhood. We have grown up understanding that being a victim in the statist sense of the word means you are not responsible for any and all actions you do.

...It’s an admittedly alluring concept, a life of consequence-free living. It’s not real, but don’t tell poor Bernie that. What happens when you aren’t a victim, however? The obvious answer is to invent a debilitating something, wave your affliction around and now you’re in business. We used to admire people for excelling in a field or a discipline. The millennials have taken that same approach to victimhood and what we watched in Portland was the Victimhood Olympics.

...Our focus should be on what the Victims Inc. employees are trying to obtain. The nonsense made up to get there is unimportant, but rather, what is the goal? If you look closely, the goal is that of all statists, ‘revolutionaries,’ progressives and whatever other flag they fly. Coercion. Do what I say, give me your stuff. I want no accountability, you may have no voice or contrary opinion, and I am entitled up to and including your very life if I am displeased with you.

Read more here.

The components of addiction

What are the components of addiction? Mark Griffiths believes

that to be classed as an addiction, any such behaviour should comprise a number of key components, including overriding preoccupation with the behaviour, conflict with other activities and relationships, withdrawal symptoms when unable to engage in the activity, an increase in the behaviour over time (tolerance), and use of the behaviour to alter mood state.

Other consequences, such as feeling out of control with the behaviour and cravings for the behaviour are often present.

...There is a lot of scientific literature showing that having one addiction increases the propensity to have other addictions.

...It is also common for people who give up one addiction to replace it with another (which we psychologists call "reciprocity").

Read more here.

What can't we become addicted to?

Sugam Pokharel and Joshua Berlinger report at CNN,

A man in India spent two months swallowing knives and had 40 of them surgically removed from his stomach, according to the doctor who led the operation.

"He had a wild urge to consume metal. Even for us, the experienced surgeons, it was frightening," Dr. Jatinder Malhotra told CNN.

...But the big question remains -- why did he start eating knives?

"I don't know why I used to swallow knives," the patient told CNN. "I just enjoyed its taste and I was addicted ... how people get addicted to alcohol and other things, my situation was similar."
Malhotra believes the patient has a very rare mental disorder that most likely has not been published in any international medical journal.

...If the urge does strike, Malhotra and his team gave him some advice -- "we told him if you ever feel like you need more iron in your body, try spinach."

Read more here.>

h/t Althouse

Addiction and the biology of desire

Dr. Joy Bliss writes at Maggie's Farm,

Addictions and other habits were defined as official "disorders" or "diseases" for one main reason: insurance coverage. Today, we see an expansion of behavioral issues labeled as diseases for the same reason. Secondarily, having a disease eliminates moral responsibility, and nobody enjoys taking responsibility for bad behavior. It feels morally, if not heroically, better to be a "survivor" or a "victim."

Interestingly, I do not think I have ever met an addict or ex-addict who considered themselves to be a "victim" of a disease. Basically, the term "disease" is a flexible one to the point that almost everybody can be labeled with one or another, so I do not know whether it matters.

A book of interest by Marc Lewis: The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease

A beacon for those who don't have the strength to talk about it

This wonderful British woman tells us about her porn addiction, how porn densensitizes those who become addicted to it, how it fulfills the pleasures that the addict wants to feel, and how it constantly sucks the addict into watching, in order to find the pleasures they want.

Were you abused as a child? Did you eventually convince yourself that it was normal, and keep it a secret? Did you ever find someone who cared enough to listen? Are you a person who will listen?


Thanks to The Blaze

Cell phone and tobacco addictions

Dr. Helen Smith wonders if cell phones are the new cigarettes. Yes, people do seem addicted to them, but tobacco addictions do not seem to be subsiding. My observation is that more women than men seem to be addicted to their cell phones, at least as many women as men seem to be purchasing cigarettes, but chewing tobacco seems to be almost exclusively a male addiction.

Is addiction a disease?

Stanton Peele writes:

Those in the upper-middle class far more often drink (about 70 percent of college graduates) than those in lower socioeconomic groups (only 35 percent of those lacking a high school diploma do). But, of those who do drink in both groups, far more of the socially disadvantaged have drinking problems. They also smoke more—despite smoking’s now-exorbitant costs. For example, 12 percent of college grads smoked in the last month, compared with 34 percent of those without a high school diploma.

Peele hates the disease theory of addiction. Read more here.

I like these thoughts by commenter Assistant Village Idiot:

I earn my daily bread in mental health pretty close to these issues.

I have concluded I have little idea why some people get sober and some cannot. I have seen 12-Step work and not work, Antabuse and Naltrexone work and not work, high accountability work and not work. I have seen heritable susceptibility (even when the child does not know the bio parents), and addiction acquired from overprescription/overuse of legitimate pain medication. I have seen addiction begin at age 6 and as late as 71 (a Baptist who had never touched alcohol until age 68).

There is indeed a neurological/physiological aspect. Sometimes I think it's 90% of the game. Sometimes 10%.

If you were once an abuser of mood-altering substances and no longer are, be very, very grateful.

Another commenter named Kevin Bush says:

"Disease Theory" or not....yes my body can't handle alcohol and I go into immediate "craving" or alcohol withdrawal on the first drink ...so yeah 'disease' ..but so what ..

"The Steps" however (process of repentance) are to cure the obsession..and they're all about responsibility ..in that they require us to become responsible for our very thoughts ( steps 4 & 10 ) by challenging their validity ..daily ..hourly ..minutely.. always checkin for BS

In that light I could never figure out how anyone in A.A. could be "liberal"..

Another commenter writes:

I use them as tools to modify my behavior. They helped me learn to take responsibility for my actions, not my thoughts, and to see the possible consequences of my actions before I act out. I don't know anyone who can control their thoughts, only people who choose to act - or not - upon them.

Unwieldy

Whose decision is it? Jesus did not make us follow HIm. He was clear that was what He wanted, but the choice is still ours. James Martin wrote a piece at Busted Halo in 2008 about Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who directed "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot." Perhaps the best actor of his day, Hoffman recently died from a heroin overdose. When he was a boy Hoffman studied to become a Catholic, and was influenced by his sister's profound faith. Hoffman is quoted by Martin as saying,

“My image of Jesus is someone who is exciting,” he said after the show had closed.

“Were he alive today, he would be causing havoc!”

More often it is that Jesus who in his upending of the status quo proves a threat to those around him.

“Jesus forgave his persecutors. If he were around today, he would be doing things that would be so… unwieldy!”

Hoffman taught his actors in a way similar to the way Jesus taught His disciples, through stories that revealed truth.

We lost another talented human being to addiction. Alissa Wilkinson writes that Hoffman

talked about how painful the work was to him, how it hurt to inhabit another person that way.

The pain, perhaps, ended up being too much to bear.

But the sacrifice for those who make things is to think of the other, to put themselves in someone else’s shoes over and over again – whether it’s your character or your audience. That is not comfortable. It is difficult to deal with. It can drive you toward things you know aren’t good for you, and can make you do things that wind up hurting others, too. But it is certainly a hallmark of bad art that the artist/writer appears to have thought only of himself.

Constant novelty at a click can cause addiction!

Why are there so few studies about the effects of porn? Gary Wilson says in this TED talk that it is because researchers can't find control groups (people who have not watched porn!) Wilson also asserts,

Internet porn is not sex. Internet porn is as different from real sex as today's video games are from checkers.

All addictions have three components: Excess chronic consumption (dopamine surges), Binge mechanism (DeltaFosB accumulates), and Cravings for more.

If the behavior is not stopped, structural brain changes occur. The brain changes result in a numbed pleasure response, hyper-reactivity to porn, and willpower erosion.

DeltaFosB is the molecular switch that kicks in.

Finally, though, there is a control group: heavy users of porn are giving it up by the thousands! Why are they giving it up? It is killing men's sexual performance!

Thanks to Jefe at Return of the Kings for posting this video.

The miracle of habit

Roy Baumeister has some ideas about the importance of developing virtuous habits.

Doing what is right requires strenuous effort to resist the alluring temptations of vice.

Or is it? Could virtue become a habit — that is, a relatively effortless, automatic tendency to do what is morally right, with a minimum of inner struggle?

A recent study in which two hundred German citizens wore beepers for a week, and at random intervals reported on their desires at that moment, found that that people with good self-control avoid temptations and problem situations, rather than battling with them. Other research confirmed that self-control works most effectively by means of controlling habits, rather than by using willpower for direct control of one’s actions in the heat of the moment.

Willpower fluctuates, and you can’t count on always having enough.

Instead, if you use willpower to establish virtuous habits, the danger of succumbing to impulse or temptation is reduced.

Can you remember your initial struggles with a bicycle, a surfboard, a computer keyboard and mouse, a tennis racquet? Yet after enough repetitions, one uses those same items efficiently and effectively, with hardly a thought or error. The human mind’s ability to convert difficult action into easy deft habit is remarkable.

People with virtuous habits conserve their willpower for when they really need it.

Indeed, it is questionable whether resisting a strong temptation or impulse can ever become entirely habitual. Virtuous habits are much more successful at avoiding those temptations and impulses than trying to stifle them once they are felt.

It takes both a suitably inclined person and the compromising situation to create the maximum temptation. In such situations, habits may help some, but willpower will almost certainly be required. At that point it may be too late for habits to help much.

One can prevent inner inclinations and weaknesses from blossoming into full-blown cravings and desires by avoiding the external circumstances that trigger them.

By pulling together many small habits, especially for avoiding temptations and problems, one can live a more virtuous life.