Addiction is an issue close to my heart and so I want to share this article with you guys, I felt so happy when I read it as it consolidates how my understanding of addiction has evolved over the last couple of years and it's great to see a structured language and conceptual framework being applied to what were pretty clear ideas floating about and evolving inside my head.
I've been studying (amateur style with self-help books!) attachment theory, also about therapy and healing with ayahuasca, and been trying to learn about trauma and how the body stores and manifests stress and illness. The book "Chasing the Scream" by Johann Hari with his great stories about Rat Park and Vietnam and Portugal etc. that have appeared in various video memes, really started to crystallize for me how addiction operates. The Dr. Daniel Sumrok in this article really gets it as far as I'm concerned, and I'm so excited to see that he has a vision of opening more clinics and trying to change the dominant paradigm about drug addiction in the US... if he succeeds the possible positive knock-on effects for other countries is very exciting!! Errr, not wanting to be rude, but let's just say that some countries might be afraid to decriminalise drugs for fear that they may suddenly be seen by certain governments as needing a sudden dose of freedom. Ahem.
So here's hoping that the human version of Rat Park, with happy hugging cuddling chums is coming to a society near you!
Read here:
) (credit to modthesims.info for the cute pic!)
Thats how I see addiction as well. I broke through childhood experiences with Maroc Hash when I was 17 and ever since found yet another substance that helped to crack up another layer of trauma. But from my experience it was not only the substances that helped, but more so important is meditation - not as a therapy - but it brings awareness to the bodily sensations. And what really really helped me was a wonderful therapist who had the ability to teach me the body wisdom that has nothing to do with understand or anything else an "I" could achieve. The natural function of the body-mind-complex that auto-releases stored trauma through emotions and sensations.
Sure it is a combination of all aspects and I also find Ayahuasca one of the greatest co-therapist in existence, because it stays there whenever I need it and it even helps the "real" therapist to help you then.
Great articel.
Thank you for sharing 🦄
Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!!! I feel we're just at the beginning of a conceptual revolution as regards addiction and still need to bring a lot of threads together. I completely agree about meditation, I read some fantastic books on the topic, namely Dan Siegel's Mindsight and also Rewire your Brain by John Arden and have since been trying to cultivate a meditation practice. I'm a total scatter brain multi-tasker so I think it helps. I also get what you mean about emotions, although could you possibly recommend some reads on Body Wisdom that your therapist might have put your way? I find it very hard to connect with and release deep emotions. I have on my to read list the body keeps the score, I suspect it will have some good insights. I couldn't afford a therapist so I tried to study psychotherapy by myself and incorporate as many techniques as I could on my own, ayahuasca as a co-therapist truly is great, but even more powerful when you are able to direction it via other therapy techniques (it's not called "work" for nuthin').
It feels like buried trauma and addiction penetrate so much of society, I would love for there to be a wide spread change in attitude towards it. Ultimately it feels like a natural response to modernity, hyper-technology, consumerism, nature disconnection, and violence and stress under capitalism, and there ain't no pill for that!
Any addiction is a consequence of an inner lack of freedom.
Can you explain more?
Very good post @kate-m!!
Thank you!! :)
My issues are with pain killers from me recent accident. Not going into too much detail but I want them out of my life.
Sounds insidious! The kind of thing that sneaks up without you noticing at first. Best of luck!
So I am an addict. An old school addict. You either deal with the fact that you use to avoid pain or you keep covering it up by using more. No way around it. Call it what you want to, avoid it if you dare.
I guess a lot of people falter at knowing how to deal with that pain.
There are no shortcuts when learning new methods of coping with life. Emotional pain is difficult to overcome. It is like rewiring the brain to function in a new way. Best of luck to you! 🐓🐓
It does require hard work from anyone trying to overcome addiction, and it's great that there are so many resources at hand for people who wish to self-educate on these issues, but it would be better if appropriate structures were in place to systemically address addiction in an appropriate way and in deed not to exasperate addictions through stigmatisation etc.
Can't say I have serious addiction issues myself, no more than an average person (which I would say is certainly not addiction free!!), although everyone has their own work to do.
I was posting back and forth with someone yesterday I am going to copy and paste to someone it may help....My son also suffers with addiction my ex was a doctor who got him on adderal....Not cool! I loved your article on the bitter greens as well. We need bitters as they give us nutrition we would not get perhaps elsewhere. Great article. :)
Did you check out the link as well that leads to the video meme about the research in "Chase the Scream"? Worth watching.
This is truly wonderful, thanks for sharing.
Have you had a chance to make a steemit chat account yet btw, so we can have a little chat about psychedelics? lol
Edit: actually nevermind, doesn't seem to be a way to do that shit on the steem chat, seems more like public groups for people to discuss things, we should go back to msn messenger :D lol
hmm, I only just noticed this comment. Yes I did create an account and after spending a minute trying to figure out how it works got a bit befuddled and lost interest and never logged in again! It failed my "one-minute" user-friendly interface test.
you're right, it isn't user friendly at all
So it seems like a stream of messages like a giant chatroom with all the members of steemit in it - I did a search for your username but nothing appeared. How does one find an individual in it??
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