My household emphatically agrees with this analysis.
The 'therefore what' is a bit trickier than the analysis, however.
The challenge seems to be to avoid enabling the addiction while working to bond with and help build a more constructive sense of the self within the addict.
Yes....many changes are afoot in evaluating root causes of “addiction” and how to deal with them. I’ll pass this on to a friend who is affected by this.
Stop treating a BEHAVIOR as an ILLNESS! I am tired of having my tax money go to support morons who CHOOSE to light up, sniff or inject substances that render them incapable of caring for themselves.
For the alcoholic they have a different issue...they process alcohol differently which makes them crave a drink
For the addict they have a hard time detoxing
For both they suffer from incomprehensible demoralization. They are spiritually bankrupt. Until they can change this way of looking at the world they are doomed to die a miserable and lonely death
I think (not my field, just my observation) that addicts lack basic coping skills.
That would sort of align with the argument you put forth.
This theory may address the issue for some, but for many it is a mile wide of the mark.
Mid-career, highly successful people, with overwhelming circles of friends and family.
Somehow feel the need for “a little help” to maintain the pace, move from coke, which has “worked” for a time, to crack...which takes over and drives them into a ditch.
Lawyer friend,
Aerospace Exec,
Software Exec,
Several honor role students in my graduating class.
I'm thinking that in a society in which "everyone gets a trophy" and little snowflakes are given safe spaces to deal with daily trauma, then people may not be learning how to authentically assess themselves.
I'm not sure it will all add up to more addictions, but I do think it really screws with the brain in bad ways.
bump
One note: My housemate, in all his decades of counseling and teaching never observed ONE case where an addict of any kind was lacking a significant degree of RAD--Attachment Disorder from the first 6 years of an unbonded, unconnected life. And, that does NOT mean that the parents didn't love the child.
As other research has indicated, it does likely indicate that the child did NOT FEEL loved.
Mental health (depression, anxiety) issues have been underlying problems with many addicts.
I’d like to disagree without thoroughly reading, so please disregard this if it demonstrates a lack of understanding the premise.
I agree that pathways are literally formed in the brain, many many in the first few years of life, that can be crucial in determining thought and awareness and even influencing emotion and drive for later life. I disagree that in someone without a genetic predisposition to addiction, being neglected early in life will lead toward substance abuse.
This is one of those situations where how the surrounding adults dealt with substances, as well as any genetic tendencies, plays more of a role than neglect or even lack of love. This is my opinion.
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Nearly 24 years sober here. Time to stop trying to reinvent the addiction/treatment model.
AA came on the scene in 1939 and almost everything it showed the world, is still true today.
I quit playing word games. I have a condition (or disease or illness), whereby I do not drink normally. My substance of choice was “more beer.”
So lesson #1 is since I cannot drink successfully, normally, I cannot drink at all.
(moderation management largely failed in the real world)
“once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” (or addict)
Good luck with all of the overeducated Psychobabble theories, mainly to justify costly programs.
Cold turkey detox may be best, since it is not painless.
Contemporary Obamacare style treatment puts fresh newcomers together.
They drink and use drugs in “sober living,” in part because a new commercial model has been substituted for old school, low bottom indigent recovery.
“we don’t drink, no matter what.”
An interesting documentary, I believe it is called “Pleasure Unwoven”, describes the physical roads that become carved into the addicts brain.
It’s just a guess on my part, but you’ve never raised any children, have you?