Addiction: Something we can all relate to? Disease or Natural Brain Habit? Does it matter?

This is disease: it can’t be reversed? Is this what addiction is? Dr. NoraVolkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) believes this, and has powerfully influenced most substance treatment models in America.

Is addiction a natural brain habit? Marc Lewis, neuroscientist says:

ADDICTION TREATMENT in America Medical, Disease Model Dominantes Treatment in America

Who’s mapping my route?

Can I pick my own road? Am I capable?

Everyone’s Addiction is Different and Everyone Needs to Find their Own Road Out -Alison Lewis, 25 years of listening to people’s stories, across economic, social and cultural barriers.

Let’s Promote More Self-Empowerment What messages do these statements send:

Common statements: “You have a disease”, “you’re an addict” “you don’t know what’s best for you because you lie”, “you’re resistant if you don’t accept our recommendations for diagnosis and type of treatment/group/individual”, “you’re in denial” and “you’re going to relapse if you don’t listen to us”, “you’re powerless to your addiction”, you “need” or “don’t need” medication to “control” your addiction, “you must go to AA/NA meetings or treatment or you will relapse”.

How might you feel?

Defensive? Helpless? Fearful? Resentful? Gerald May: 1988: "we are all addicts in every sense of the word" " addiction is at work in every human being"

Stigma in America: Us and Them

Diagnosis /labels: creates barriers amongst us, moves us away from our humanness, and keep us from understanding each other. Misdiagnosis in America.

HIPPA and Confidentiality: As a society we have tremendous fear that we will violate another person’s privacy...There are more and more laws, with tougher consequences to protect privacy because if someone finds out “you have a problem” you could lose your job, friends or reputation, be subject of gossip.

Social Media: dividing, ranking and isolating Americans: Focus on what’s on the outside: my presentation, my image, how many followers I have, how many likes. Gaming environment: a new level of ranking and competition with others from your home. You can be rejected from home.

What does this say about our America?

In order to take responsibility for our addiction we need to feel accepted. It’s a human thing...not a moral thing.Relapse = Guilt + Shame + Judgement

Guilt: You relapsed again? There go your recovery days! Shame: What’s wrong with you, why can’t you stop? Judgement: I can’t understand you; you’re an addict,criminal

ISN’T THERE A GENE FOR ADDICTION?

“Not only isn’t there a gene for addiction there couldn’t be one. Genes are controlled by our environment, genes are turned off and on by the environments, human life could not exist if it weren’t so.” -Gabor Mate, retired doctor in Vancouver, Canada was treating the chronic addicted homeless

Epigenetics: “as result of life events, chemicals attach themselves to DNA and direct gene activity”. STRESS IS CHANGING OUR GENES

Stress is Changing Our BrainAmerica is stressed out!Parents and kids are under tremendous stress. Let’s start supporting parents, judgement and blame free. Most parents mean well.

Chronic addiction and homelessness is caused by a lifetime of ongoing trauma and high stress environments that begin in childhood.

It’s hard to accept yourself with increasing stress to achieve the American Dream: status, power, money, success, and fame. What if I don’t “make it” in America or worse lose what I already achieved? Or, if a parent, will my child be accepted and “make it” in America?

I need

relief from

all this

stress...

We’re ignoring our internal messages to resolve stress. We’re looking outside ourselves for relief...for a quick solution...

American Consumerism:drives us to seek “relief” “happiness”outside of ourselves, in the new, latest, biggest, and most exciting trends.

But all this stuff is so satisfying and exciting?

Consumerism=Healthcare too?

Pharmaceutical companies in the American consumer market... Isn’t this how the opioidcrisis came about, unchecked CONSUMERISM? Vivitrol=Oxycotin?

FDA standards for research on substance abuse treatment drugs are low, rarely long term research. Due to the opiate crisis there is a high demand for more substance abuse treatment medications. Pharmaceutical companies are funding the new drugs. Are we educated consumers?

Thoughts about Addiction Treatment in America:“Addiction treatment has become big business. If you haven't noticed it yet, investors certainly have. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration projected the market for addiction treatment at about $35 billion for 2014.”

“Anne M. Fletcher, author of Sober for Good, “Alcoholics and addicts may not need to go to a rehab center at all”, Fletcher told the New York Times. “The truth is that most people recover:1) completely on their own; 2) by attending self-help groups; and/or 3) by seeing a counselor or therapist individually,” she said.” ****The push for Evidence-based treatment drives market growth***

How can addiction be a natural brain habit?

Our humans brains are designed to seek and find different ways to motivate us.

What causes our brains to make one goal more important than the other? One goal more motivating than another? Reward, perhaps? What’s in it for me?

“Repeated (motivating) experiences produce brain changes that start to define future experiences. These changes don’t occur because of the drug or booze. But a string of similar experiences. Nice experiences. Experiences of relief. Experiences that feel good, or at least better than the rest of your boring and depressing life…the changes are caused by motivated repetition, repetition that is something special….” “Rumination is the result of a normal brain doing what it’s designed to do, a cycle of seeking and finding the same thing over and over again”. Marc Lewis, Biology of Desire: Why addiction is not a disease.

Motivation Pathways in the Brain

Our brains seek and find what feels good, and

create a “pathway” to motivate us towards this.

Our addictions we chose are unique to each of us.

How destructive the addiction gets depends

on a person’s unique life circumstances and

repetition of the same “motivational pathway”...

When Addiction becomes DESTRUCTIVE:

Dopamine andBrain chemistry:Keep ussitting on the “same side”of the sofa.

The brain findsways to adapt.

HARRY POTTER’S HORCRUX NECKLACE OR LORD OF THE RINGS

These impact ANYONE that putsthem on…What makes someone

decide to take off the necklace

or the ring? Aren’t they sensing

the need to take it off while

they’re wearing it?

Even though under the influence

of the the spell? Is it a matter of choice to take it off?

That’s way too simple...

Recovery OR Addiction

One or the other: you can’t be doing both? Sick or cured? A contradiction?

Can you learn about your relationship with addiction without the pressure to choose a “state”?

How did my addiction get so powerful in my life?

Life experiences mold us. When addiction habits pick up POWER in our life it’s for a REASON.

LIFESCRIPTS: Insight Memory Maps

sentences we live by created by:boredomrestlessnesshurt, pain, trauma…..

TUNING IN: WE have the answers in our minds; we need to find when and why the addiction(s) took hold and the lifescripts we created and learned to keep the addiction(s) going. (Guilt and Shame Free search)

Dream and Recreate Yourself Replace Addictive Habits With New Healthy Habits

How Do I Start New Learning?

What’s my approach to my addiction?

Empower: curiosity, vulnerable, trial/error, focused attention, looking inward for answers, tuning in, accepting environment

Defensive: boring/it doesn’t matter/I don’t care/it won’t work/tune out,unaccepting environment: resentment/judgement

Societal Issues Helplessness/Lack of Self-Empowerment

Stigma “US and THEM” decreasing community

High Stress & Tuning Out

12 New Steps for the 21st Century (12Steps21stCentury on Instagram)

12 New Steps for the 21st Century

Self-Empowerment Steps for Addiction (shame/guilt/judgement free)

1. Addiction is a normal human condition. Everyone has experienced addiction in their lifetime. Addiction starts to take hold in my life when I look for something in the outside world to soothe myself, or make myself feel needed, or powerful or accepted…Addiction habits: Internet, food, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, sports, relationships, procrastination, anger, parenting, thrill seeking, power, money, status, self-image, perfectionism, over achievement/responsibility, exercise, work, cell phones, gaming, shopping, shoplifting, tanning, American dream, sugar, caffeine, cigarettes, aging, grief. * We can have more than one addiction, and they can interact with each other…or we can also have addiction transfer...

Addiction Transfer? “Can’t get your favorite fix, once your dopamine receptors are active”, it’s easy to get addicted to another” substance/process/thing….

“Sugar happens to be the cheapest of our many substances of abuse”. “For heroin or cocaine, you need a dealer and a wad of cash. For alcohol and nicotine, you need an ID. But for sugar, all you need is a quarter or a grandma. Everyone’s an addict, and all your relatives are pushers… and it’s

LEGAL.” -Hacking of the American Mind, Dr Robert Lustig, MD MSL *Sugar generates 20 billion dollars a year in U.S. Alcohol 223 billion in the US in 2016 and alcohol is expected globally by 2022 to be 1,594 billion dollar industry.

2. I can feel empowered over my addiction. I am in control of understanding my addiction. When I am told “how” or “forced” to “manage” my addiction it can build resentment. Resentment is the path to relapse for many.

3. Addiction is a learned brain habit I acquired in my life, and I can learn not to depend on it anymore. *The habit had a beginning, a middle, and it can have an end. I hold the answers to how the habit started, developed and why it has such power in my life. *The memories that created the habit are in the dark hallways of my mind. *Take a flashlight. Make an insight map you may find you have more than one addiction. * I will be kind to myself. Judgement free and guilt/shame free.

4. Addiction protects me from feeling my emotions. I can find my most difficult emotions, feel them and overcome them. I can be strong.

5. Addiction is ignited by normal human desires, wants and longings. The addiction focuses on the “chase” of what we desire, want or long for, not always in getting it and enjoying it. Addiction is not right or wrong. Addiction must be separated from morality.

6. Addiction does lie to us, but we all lie to ourselves in different ways and at different times. Everyone has the truth inside them and can reconnect with their own truth. Find a person or more to help guide you.

7. The addicted brain is a “stuck” brain that struggles when it attempts to make healthy decisions. Addiction can be compared to a temporary psychosis or foggy brain when at its worst, and at this point, addiction can lead me to make my most destructive decisions. My decision making returns once I am able to refocus my addicted brain.

8. Negative self-evaluations, shame, guilt, self-conflict, failure, resentment and emotions can spark my impulse to self-medicate (whatever works for a reward for me) and turn on my cravings. The more I seek to escape, the more reward I crave, the more destructive my addiction gets.

9. Insight is an escape tunnel for any addiction. Insight empowers me to understand where my addiction came from. Insight also reconnects me to myself, my values and dreams. Addiction can make me forget who I am, but it can’t erase who I am.

10. Finding the answers to my addiction can be laborious when I don’t have support or understanding with family/friends or in my community. If I feel unsupported and judged my addiction can increase to protect me. It’s called survival.

11. I can quiet addiction habits by creating new healthy habits. Picturing a new future can create a new focus in my life and create healthy habits. Compassion and kindness can help start new habits.

12. Addiction can bring anyone to their knees. Anyone. America as a society can be blind to embracing addiction as a normal human condition because it’s often focused on its own addiction, the American Dream: success, appearance, money, power and status.

*These 12 Steps are a modernized look at addiction, based on my experiences and insight I gained from counseling with people in America for 25 years. Thank you to all these people I worked with; they taught me, inspired me and empowered me over my own addictions. Questions: alisonlewiscounselor@gmail.com

Alison Lewis, LMHC, CASAC, copyright @ 2017

And

sometimes

it’s frozen for

a bit ...the thaw

will come!

ResourcesIn the Realm Of Hungry Ghosts. Gabor Mate

https://www.alternet.org/drugs/drug-companies-are-funding-investigational-studies-influence-their-results How Big Pharma is Cashing in on Addciton to Alcohol and Illicit Drugs.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/schizophrenia-identity/ What Schizophrenia Can Teach Us About Ourselves

The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains. Robert Lustig, MD and MSL

Race to NoWhere: Transforming Education from the Ground Up: Video

The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease. Marc Lewis

Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. Marc Lewis.

An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You CAn Take It Back, Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD

Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change. A Guide for Families. Foote, Wilkens, Kosanke, Higgs

Excellent Sheep: The MisEducation of the American Elite-William Deresiewicz

SMART Recovery Programs: families

Article on Elderly and Addiction: addichttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/health/elderly-drugs-addiction.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront

Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's homeless By STEVE BREEN,

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/steve-breen/sd-steve-breen-street-portraits-faces-of-san-diego-homeless-20170418-htmlstory.html

What We Mean When We Say Evidence-Based MedicinePeople understand different things by this term, and the arguments don’t divide along predictable partisan lines, either.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/upshot/what-we-mean-when-we-say-evidence-based-medicine.html

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat, Anahad O’Connor, sept 12, 2016 NewYorkTimes. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html

Addiction and Grace: Gerald May

The Awakened Heart: Opening Yourself to the Love You Need: Gerald May

https://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/why-addiction-treatment-needs-to-be-informed-by-natural-recovery-data/

https://filtermag.org/2018/10/08/transforming-addiction-treatment-my-10-steps-to-deep-systemic-change/

STRESS is Changing the Brain

-9/11 PTSD study with pregnant women exposed in 1st and 3rd trimesters: mothers in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy their infant at one year of age had abnormal levels of the stress hormone cortisol, in utero effect. -study with women pregnant 1st and 3rd trimesters Nazi concentration camps in Germany, starving, and this impacted 3rd trimester pregnancies, those babies had over eatting patterns, not 1st trimester.

-pregnant mothers with anxiety were likely to have infants more vulnerable to ADHD and anxiety and fear, creates high risk factors for addiction.

-3 million children in America diagnosed with ADHD, and a half a million children on anti-psychotics. Rapid increases in numbers of diagnosis indicate this can’t be a genetic change, it happened too fast.