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ADDICTION, DISEASE AND RECOVERY A MENTAL ILLNESS
Hello, my name is Scott G. and I am an addict. I am writting this blog in hopes of informing those whose lives are affected by drug and alcohol that there is a simple solution called recovery. I will include articles and other material that one many use in the fight and solutions that have worked for me and countless others. This will face the true nature of addiction and the spiritual experience that one must have if they are to recover from additive personalities produced by the mental illness so few understand.
If you or someone you know is affeted by addiction then you may wish to read further. We believe, and sosuggested that the action of drugs and alcohol on these cronic types is a manifestation of an allergy and that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the temperate user.
These allergic types can never safely use any form of mind altering chemicals and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced. The sensation is so elusive that, while the admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. After they have succumed to the disire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving developes, they pass through the sell-know stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to pick up again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.
But, once a psychic change has occured, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds that he is able to control his desire for drugs or alcohol, and the only effort necessary being tyhat he follow a few simple rules. That is what recovery is all about.
So, I hope to open the eyes of those affected by addition and the phenomenon of craving that has become paramount in the lives of these suffering people and those around them. Please do not give up hope, the addict will only get this thing in Gods time. Please read on. Thank you.
How To Achieve Spiritual Awakening and Over Come Addiction
Go look at an Indian guru or a Buddhist monk, and you’ll observe that there’s a dreamy look in their eyes, or a state of bliss that emanates from their countenance. Since most people, especially those living in the city, are pervaded by stress in an environment where deadlines, expectations, and goals are at the forefront of their thoughts, the urge to disentangle oneself from worldly worries and insipid thoughts can take its hold every once in a while. Some resort to travel, and some depend on the company of friends. But after the weeding out of negative thoughts, an individual will most likely find himself in the midst of stress again once he goes back in the strangle of the real world. So what’s the best cure after initial attempts to find solace has failed? It can be summed up in two words: spiritual awakening.
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL AWAKENING? How can I releive my addiction, disease and mental illness and recover? Spiritual awakening is a process that takes place in an individual’s being. It involves heightened consciousness, enlightenment, and transcendence. How do we exactly reach this state? Does it involve secluding ourselves in one solitary room and concentrating as hardly as we can? Maybe so, but the act of achieving spiritual awakening is a much more sophisticated process.SPIRITUAL AWAKENING THROUGH MEDITATION
A full understanding of how our mind works is instrumental in this endeavor. Everything around us – tangible and intangible – are all products of the mind and its processes. Human perception is limited, and what we sense in our surroundings are its mere products. Take color for instance. Color is just a quality assigned by the brain in accordance to different degrees of wavelengths.
So color in itself is just an illusion, and we can’t really tell that red or blue is an absolute truth when describing specific objects. And knowing that our mind is limited by the interpretations of the human brain, we will need to do away with the mind while trying to attempt this exercise. You need to look at the mind like a casual observer, and treat it as something that is separate from our selves. Try to relax and concentrate, and ensure that you are in a location secluded from outside interference.
Imagine that you are in an invisible dome, and that the mind is outside, wherein thoughts and fancies are unable to penetrate. If you achieve this, profound silence will ensue, and you will feel that you are free of the mind. You’ll feel vaster, bigger, and encompassing. And in the state of heightened consciousness, you will have a glimpse of reality, as opposed to the false reality that our mind perceives. You will feel peaceful, and a sense of connection with everything will be felt in a more profound manner.
PRACTICE IS FUNDAMENTAL
This takes a lot of practice and discipline. And it is inherent that you give yourself the opportunity to be alone and in a place where nothing can disturb you. Through constant practice, achieving spiritual awakening will be second nature to you and this heightened consciousness will last longer. Most important of all, this practice can help you improve the quality of your life. And overcome the addiction, disease and recover.
Achieving Spiritual Development Despite A Materialistic World
During the earlier days, people primarily used their instincts as well as their psychic abilities in order to figure out the world and live life in such a way that they will attract positive energy at all times. However, it has become a totally different scenario nowadays, especially that we now live in such a materialistic world wherein scientific technologies and discoveries rule our lives.
Although these things make the lives of human beings much easier and bearable, they have also unfortunately, created a barrier between us and a thing called spirituality. With such blockade obstructing our minds and hearts, we are then limited to what we can only sense and therefore, hinder us from achieving spiritual development.Shield From Temptations And Negative Energies
Truly, it is very important that we are able to achieve spiritual development in our lives, especially in the world that we live in. Essentially, it can be our tool in shielding us from the temptations and negative energies which the modern life presents to us. With a developed spirituality within us, it can therefore be much easier for us to ignore materialistic fantasies and desires and stresses coming from the busy and hectic demands of the world. What is more, when we have finally obtained a developed spirituality, it only means that we have freed ourselves from becoming victims of the negative energies that surround us. In other words, we can always do something to protect ourselves from the things that can harm us; not only to our physical bodies but also our mentality and balance as well.
Auras Emanating From Within Ourselves
All of us have an inner spirituality and energy which generally emanate from our bodies. This is what many people call our aura. Basically, our aura comprises of the things which our body holds including our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being. A person with a lively aura may simply mean that he is satisfied with all of the beings present inside of him. And when a person emanates a negative aura, it means exactly the other way around. However, auras are not only emanated but can also be shared with another person. This means that if a person exudes a negative aura in him, he can definitely influence other people’s aura into being in the same state.
Negativity Making It Worse For Human Beings
Furthermore, it is true that our world today is filled with such negative auras and unhealthy temptations. Many people are deprived of spiritual development simply because they are distracted by the countless materialistic things which they think are indispensable in order to survive. And what is more, instead of making people content and fulfilled with their lives, these materialistic things only make it worse for them. And so what happens is that they are ushered into wanting more making them more focused on materialism instead of on developing their own spirituality. Clearly, as long as a person does not recognize that having a fully developed spirituality is necessary, he can never be satisfied and happy with his life.
Therefore, as soon as you feel unhappy about yourself, you must immediately fight that vulnerability to be attracted to all of the negative energies around you. Such a state is very difficult to handle especially if you have an addiction or disease that tells you it will be different but do not want to open your mind and heart to making your very own spiritual development. One thing is for sure, for as long as you stay in a negative state, you will certainly be geared towards getting engaged in unhealthy and negative activities as well as experiences.
Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Times Facing Addiction, Disease and Mental Illness and Find Recovery
?To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention mostly to physical needs and wants. As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled. How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?
To grow spiritually is to look inward.Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you have, and the things you engage in provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are some pointers when you introspect: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.
To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.
Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one dimension of an individual. Mastery of the self is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. In Psychology, realizing one’s full potential is to self-actualize. Maslow identified several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.
To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.
Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism, Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of the human life is to serve the Creator of all things. Several theories in psychology propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives. Whether we believe that life’s meaning is pre-determined or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to—a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.
To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.
Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct blood relations. Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being. On the other hand, science expounds on our link to other living things through the evolution theory. This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Maslow. Recognizing your connection to all things makes you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature. It makes you appreciate everything around you. It moves you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other people, and become stewards of all other things around you.
Growth is a process thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day encounter. We win some, we lose some, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.
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Adventures in Creative Thinking
How many times have you caught yourself saying that there could be no other solution to a problem – and that that problem leads to a dead end? How many times have you felt stumped knowing that the problem laying before you is one you cannot solve. No leads. No options. No solutions.
Did it feel like you had exhausted all possible options and yet are still before the mountain – large, unconquerable, and impregnable? When encountering such enormous problems, you may feel like you’re hammering against a steel mountain. The pressure of having to solve such a problem may be overwhelming.But rejoice! There might be some hope yet!
With some creative problem-solving techniques you may be able to look at your problem in a different light. And that light might just be the end of the tunnel that leads to possible solutions.
First of all, in the light of creative problem-solving, you must be open-minded to the fact that there may be more than just one solution to the problem. And, you must be open to the fact that there may be solutions to problems you thought were unsolvable.
Now, with this optimistic mindset, we can try to be a little bit more creative in solving our problems.
Number one; maybe the reason we cannot solve our problems is that we have not really taken a hard look at what the problem is. Here, trying to understanding the problem and having a concrete understanding of its workings is integral solving the problem. If you know how it works, what the problem is, then you have a better foundation towards solving the problem.
Not trying to make the simple statement of what problem is. Try to identify the participating entities and what their relationships with one another are. Take note of the things you stand to gain any stand to lose from the current problem. Now you have a simple statement of what the problem is.
Number two; try to take note of all of the constraints and assumptions you have the words of problem. Sometimes it is these assumptions that obstruct our view of possible solutions. You have to identify which assumptions are valid, in which assumptions need to be addressed.
Number three; try to solve the problem by parts. Solve it going from general view towards the more detailed parts of the problem. This is called the top-down approach. Write down the question, and then come up with a one-sentence solution to that from them. The solution should be a general statement of what will solve the problem. From here you can develop the solution further, and increase its complexity little by little.
Number four; although it helps to have critical thinking aboard as you solve a problem, you must also keep a creative, analytical voice at the back of your head. When someone comes up with a prospective solution, tried to think how you could make that solution work. Try to be creative. At the same time, look for chinks in the armor of that solution.
Number five; it pays to remember that there may be more than just one solution being developed at one time. Try to keep track of all the solutions and their developments. Remember, there may be more than just one solution to the problem.
Number six; remember that old adage,” two heads are better than one.” That one is truer than it sounds. Always be open to new ideas. You can only benefit from listening to all the ideas each person has. This is especially true when the person you’re talking to has had experience solving problems similar to yours.
You don’t have to be a gung-ho, solo hero to solve the problem. If you can organize collective thought on the subject, it would be much better.
Number seven; be patient. As long as you persevere, there is always a chance that a solution will present itself. Remember that no one was able to create an invention the first time around.
Creative thinking exercises can also help you in your quest be a more creative problems solver.
Here is one example.
Take a piece of paper and write any word that comes to mind at the center. Now look at that word then write the first two words that come to your mind. This can go on until you can build a tree of related words. This helps you build analogical skills, and fortify your creative processes.
So, next time you see a problem you think you can not solve, think again. The solution might just be staring you right in the face. All it takes is just a little creative thinking, some planning, and a whole lot of work. Good Luck and “Go To Meetings!”
The Stolen Concept Of Neuroplasticity In The Brain Disease Model Of Addiction
the fallacy of the stolen concept: the act of using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends.
In the vision of addiction as a brain disease presented by today’s recovery propagandists, they present what they feel is a smoking gun – the brain scan. Basically, it’s a pretty picture of the brain of an active substance user, which they compare against the brain of someone who doesn’t use drugs. They’re quick to point out that there are readily visible differences – that the brain of the addict has been changed by their repeated choices to use drugs. Then, those of us who reject the disease concept are laughed at as fools who ignore the overwhelming evidence that addiction is indeed a brain disease. Of course, these “scientists” (and I use the term loosely, because they’re so incredibly dumb) are referring to a process of neuroplasticity when they make such an argument. Yet they go on to claim that the brain is so altered that only a medical intervention can hope to address it; that these brain changes will always be there and the subject will always crave drugs for the rest of their lives as a result – and that one can only hope to learn to cope with the effects; and that they need more money so they can design a medication to solve this problem.Neuroscience is a burgeoning field where innovation and new discoveries have been occurring at light speed over the last decade or two. What’s been found, contrary to earlier beliefs that the brain was hard-wired in the womb or childhood, is that the human brain retains neuroplasticity throughout our entire lives! That is, the brain is constantly changing throughout our lives. What’s more, advanced work by the likes of Jeffrey Schwartz has shown that it doesn’t take a chemical agent such as heroin or methamphetamine to effect neuroplastic changes in the brain – mere thoughts, attention, and the power of personal focus create changes in the brain. Such mental activity creates strengthened brain circuits and neuronal connections. The brain scans are compelling, and they have their place, but they must be accompanied by logic, that is, the facts need to be interpreted in a way that makes sense – or the results can be dangerous. For example, an idiot may see such results and proclaim that addiction is a brain disease, thereby misleading people into believing that they can’t change their behavior without a medical miracle which still doesn’t exist!
To understand neuroplasticity, it may help to look at the brain like a muscle of sorts. When you make it a habit to work, say your abdominal muscles, very hard every day at the gym, you will end up with six-pack abs. At first the workouts take a lot of effort, yet over time as the muscles increase in strength and size, the workouts become easier, and they feel more automatic. The six-pack is kept in shape almost mindlessly at this point, or at least without the same level of work with which you originally created it. But when you stop working those muscles altogether, they go away. You may work other muscles in the meantime and increase those, but the lack of working the abs destroys the six pack – and it will include much effort and focus to regain the six-pack. In the same way that the muscles we focus on in a work out will increase in size and strength, and the ones we ignore may decrease – the brain areas that we focus on and exercise will increase in strength and size, and the ones we ignore or deprive of activity will decrease. The brain, is like a bunch of muscles. This is why people don’t become “instantly addicted” when they do drugs – and indeed, this logic is built into the brain disease model of addiction – to a degree.
In the brain disease model, it goes that there isn’t really a pre-existing condition, but that the brain circuits which respond to drug use become increasingly larger or strengthened as someone repeatedly uses drugs in an intense fashion – so here the argument is built upon neuroplasticity. The anti-brain-disease argument doesn’t deny this – it simply asks for consistency. Where the brain-disease theorists engage in conceptual theft is when they build their case upon the principles of neuroplasticity while simultaneously denying the principles of neuroplasticity. Again:
the fallacy of the stolen concept: the act of using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends.The part of the brain-disease argument which denies neuroplasticity is when they claim that substance users cross a threshold whereby their brain will remain forever changed, and only medicine can effect a change. The brain circuits were strengthened through repetition and focus, and if the user simply finds something else to focus on, they will in turn ignore the muscle in question, depriving it of any exercise, and allow it to shrink, while they work another brain muscle. This is how people change their habits every day. My grandmother did it quite simply when she decided to chew gum or work on some gardening whenever she felt like smoking a cigarette. She broke a 40 year smoking habit that way. Scientists who care about solving a problem rather than finding new ways to try to support the addiction-as-disease political agenda, are doing research which logically confirms the process that my grandmother and so many others have used to change their habits, and they’re being intellectually honest about the results (see Jeffrey Schwartz).
Perhaps I’m wrong, but if so, then we should consider six-pack abs a symptom of a disease called ab-ism.
Note: There are plenty of other problems with the brain disease model of addiction, perhaps most notably that an actual loss-of-control or “hijacking of free-will” is never proven in any way, only anecdotal evidence in the form of subjective reports of powerlessness from people who’ve been taught that they’re powerless by the recovery culture is ever offered up as evidence of compulsion i.e. involuntary behavior. I have covered these ideas elsewhere, but today, I just want to focus on the stolen concept fallacy. Essentially, I’m only noting this as a disclaimer here so that no one gets the erroneous idea that my acknowledgment of the validity of one part of the brain disease argument amounts to endorsement of the idea that such strengthened brain circuits lead to uncontrolled use, they don’t. Such brain changes only allow for automation, like any habit, such as brushing one’s teeth – if you were used to doing it every day, you might go about it automatically at some point, but that doesn’t mean it’s involuntary. If you had some reason to not brush your teeth, such as a recent oral surgery, you would then pay mind to the habit and keep yourself from engaging in it. That is, you were never out of control, you put yourself on auto-pilot in a way, because the activity aligned with your wants, and as soon as another want (for your oral stitches to heal) entered your consciousness, you took yourself off of auto-pilot. Make sense? Wow, now I’m really writing too much.
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