Addiction

Addiction

Definitions

addiction (n.)

PDM: …the motivation to use and misuse drugs or to engage in an addictive behaviour is born from unresolved conflicts and traumatic experiences that arouse intolerably dysphoric affects [bad feelings]. … A form of self-medication against dysphoria or disordered mood. … It ameliorates suffering, but because that relief is only temporary, the person needs to engage again in the defensive behaviour of addiction once the relief wears off.

Avena, Rada, & Hoebel: The term “addiction” implies psychological dependence and thus is a mental or cognitive problem, not just a physical ailment. (paper: Evidence for Sugar Addiction)

English & English: Slavery to a pernicious habit, esp. the taking of certain drugs.

drug addiction (n.)

Avena, Rada, & Hoebel: Drug dependence is characterized by compulsive, sometimes uncontrollable, behaviors that occur at the expense of other activities and intensify with repeated access. (paper: Evidence for Sugar Addiction)

English & English: continued reliance upon the effects of a narcotic drug, with the result that progressively strong doses are required to obtain these effects, and that there is both psychological and physiological distress when the drug is withdrawn.

Chaplin: the habitual use of drugs, with psychological and physiological dependence.

My Definition

Physical or emotional dependency on a substance, person, or experience which is not actually necessary for survival, the removal of which causes emotional or physical distress. The substance, person, or experience relied upon either creates positive feelings, or is sufficiently stimulating to mask/eradicate negative emotions or feelings of weakness/vulnerabilty. The negative emotions pre-date the addiction, but the majority of the negative symptoms which the subtance/process mask/eradicate are actually caused by the absence of the substance/process itself.

Discussion

Discussions of addiction tend to focus/fixate on substances (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc.) because a substance is something which is obviously identifiable that the addicted person can be seen putting into their bodies. This allows the discussion to remain in the realm of concrete objects and does not require us to look at the emotional underpinnings of addiction. These are often difficult and painful, and usually connect to deep feelings of inadequacy or experiences of abuse/mistreatment.

Similarly, this is why cognitive science and neuroscience are so fixated on the dopamine-system of the brain as the primary mechanism of addiction; because it gives us a concrete object to study, rather than wading around in the murky muck of loneliness, abandonment, weakness, and despair that addiction is about emotionally.

Although it is true that many addictive substances cause clear neurochemical changes in the brain which cause the person to experience withdrawal symptoms when the substance is withheld, the nature of addiction is much more complex than this, and the physiological component is really only part of the story.

Existential Analysis distinguishes, for example, between substance addictions (drugs, alcohol, etc.) and process addictions (work, video games, etc.). However, even casual observation of ourselves and others shows us that it is possible to become addicted to all kinds of things, such that even this distinction feels rather limited.

The sad part, of course, is that the long-term effects of addiction are unequivocally negative. Frustratingly, also, in the case of most substance abuse, the substance itself exacerbates the very negative feeling that the user uses the substance to get rid of. Taking the drug it creates the need for it. Meaning that if you had never taken it, you would never have needed it.

However, this is only explains why the addicted person continues to take an addictive substance. It does not explain why they took it the very first time. Nor does it explain why they took it the second time, and the subsequent number of times required to create and solidify the physiological dependency.

This is why the PDM definition above is so non-specific and only names conflict, trauma, and self-medication in general. Although the addiction cycle eventually becomes self-perpetuating, it begins with intolerable negative emotions that began long before the person ever took a drug or watched porn or played a video game. And that kernel of negative emotion remains even after the substance is removed and the withdrawal symptoms have passed. This is why abstinence-only methods so often lead to relapse. The person is no longer physiologically addicted, but they have no other way of dealing with their negative emotions.

These can be explicitly negative emotions in the sense of loneliness or grief, but they can also be the threat of negative emotions, ie. FOMO, peer pressure, and the fear of being ridiculed. This is often the motivation to take/do something the first time.

Often they do it the second time because, the first time they do it, they discover the central feature of every addictive substance or process:

“This makes me feel good, like really good, good in a way I have never felt before.”

If they don’t feel this way immediately, it’s often peer-pressure or FOMO which keeps them doing it until they “aquire a taste for it.” This happens for many young people with alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee, which most children very much dislike the taste/smell of but do anyway because they want to be cool or feel grown-up. The disgusting flavour becomes associated with this grown-up feeling, as well as the positive effects of the drug, and so they come to like a flavour which they previously disliked.

The key to successfully resisting the temptation to start or return to using an addictive substance/process is therefore the resolution of the original negative feeling. This is much easier said than done, which again is why it usually takes 10+ attempts for someone to successfully quit their preferred substance or process.

It is also helpful to re-train one’s experience of the flavour of a substance, or focus on the negative physiological aspects of playing video games, like brain-fog, muscle stiffness, weight gain, deteriorating self-care routines.

A broader list of things it is possible to become addicted to: