Just want to put this out there - I was away from home, and then house-sitting without internet, for the past 2 weeks, since the last publish date (7/23). Feeling stressed that I didn't write last week! Today is already Thursday and while publishing once a week at this point seems like a good goal, I am finding it sometimes difficult to maintain. Also aiming to keep in mind the practice of not entertaining stress in my body, mind or experience. I choose to relax in this moment. I choose to accept that my writing could not happen last week, and relax into my knowing that it is all happening in divine timing. I choose to trust myself to write in a structured way whenever possible, and to accept when that cannot be so. To those of you who are following this blog - thank you! - and just know that I will do my very best to write something good here every week.
There are many loose ends in my previous posts: the legal aspects of using Schedule One controlled substances - which is one aspect that will have to wait until I am able to schedule an appointment with a lawyer; the other entheogens I have not yet written about (San Pedro and Ibogaine); the cultural taboos and vilification of entheogens in general; the possible dangers of using, and misusing these medicines; rites of passage; elders and eldering; and a deeper look at what is known about how these substances do what they do for us. After clearing up some of these loose ends, I want to take a look at some of the world cultures that use entheogens, specifically looking at how they raise their children around these medicines. There may be a few more subjects arising as this research is completed, after which I plan to begin interviewing people who are raising or who have already raised their children in the US as members of an indigenous spiritual tradition.
Just a note on staying focused: it has been hard these past few weeks to get in the state of mind I feel I need to achieve in order to write. I have found myself performing avoidance maneuvers - like this morning I was going to focus for 3 hours on writing and instead deep-cleaned the bathroom (it needed it!) and went to work on my other home project an hour early. Tired myself right out with five hours of labor, troweling concrete onto the exterior and interior walls of our addition/ greenhouse. Now it is 10 pm, I am beat, and I still have not gotten this blog written. I feel like I am falling short. Just admitting this in writing feels like a good step. However I will not be satisfied until I get into some real content here. My coach, the one who initially advised me to start this blog, recommended I write (or research, or focus on this project) from 9-12 every Tuesday and Thursday. Starting next week, I am going to hold to that. I am definitely a morning person when it comes to thinking!
Before continuing on with my list, I want to share about an article I recently read: "The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered and it is Not What You Think, ",(1) by Johann Hari, author of a book on this subject entitled Chasing the Scream. In his article, the author mentions some of the drug studies done on rats which seemed to prove that addictions are completely self-destructive, even unto death, and that the "War on Drugs" is completely necessary for our continued survival. Researchers put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles. One bottle contained regular water, and the other water with cocaine added. The rat would quickly become obsessed with the cocaine water and would drink it until it died. These results seem to point to the fact that access to drugs causes addiction.
Then along comes another researcher, a Psychology professor from Vancouver named Bruce Alexander, who noticed that these rats were all alone in their plain cages with nothing to do all day but take the offered drugs. He designed an alternative experiment, where rats got to live together in "Rat Park," a special environment where there was stimulation, exercise, games to play, good food, and other rats to hang with, as well as regular water and cocaine water. Lo and behold, the rats in Rat Park did not drink the cocaine water very much, consuming less than a quarter of the amount that rats in isolation drank. And they did not get addicted! According to the article, "Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both
to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too
much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a
disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues,
addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. It's your cage."
The prevalent view in our culture on addiction has been that people get addicted because drugs 'hijack their brains.' But with these studies, and further studies showing that even addicted rats can stop using the cocaine water if they get moved into Rat Park, the view of addiction as the result of chemical hijacking is coming into question. The new paradigm looks at the bigger picture, seeing that the addict is not finding what they need in their life to be happy and fulfilled, like the rat in the barren cage. What is needed is a new cage (aka environment). And what many people are starting to realize is this new 'cage' needs to be one where bonding and deep connections are made. Professor Peter Cohen, also quoted in the article, says people will connect with whatever they can. If there isn't a person or people available to connect with, the addict will connect with a drug, or with a behavior, searching for that (missing) comfort and sense of belonging..
In the words of the article's author:
"So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection."
If this perspective were adopted, the treatment for people with addictions would begin with the view that addiction is just a symptom of a much greater issue - and the addiction itself would NOT be the focus of the treatment! Instead, treatment would focus on teaching people how to find connection and meaning in the world: how to connect with themselves, how to connect with their emotions, how to connect with others, and how to connect with the sacred and discover a purpose for their lives.
This is the essence of the medicine work of which I have been a part for the past 10 years.
(1) http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-likely-cause-of-addiction-has-been-discovered-and-it-is-not-what-you-think/
Showing posts with label compassion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compassion. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Addiction, Suffering, and Compassion
If you have been reading along so far, it should be pretty clear that we live in a very addicted country (world?). I looked up "Types of Addictions" online and up popped a website, listing them A - Z!(1) Seriously. Besides things I have discussed in previous blogs, like television, alcohol, and sugar, and the obvious villains, the 'bad drugs' like heroin, cocaine, crack, and PCP, and tobacco, there are SO many other things to which we can be addicted: food, shopping, shop-lifting, sex, gambling, gaming, porn, plastic surgery, exercise, risky behavior, and on and on and on...
Addictions and the Brain
Before we go farther down this road, let's take another look at brain chemistry. In the last post I was talking about the dopamine-reward brain circuitry. This circuit developed to guide evolving humans towards natural rewards like food, sex, and bonding. In today's world, however, "extreme versions of natural rewards have a unique ability to capture us." (2) When we are exposed to high calorie foods, or the constant novelty of endless numbers of beautiful, potential 'mates' having sex on a screen, or anything on the above list, each occurrence gives us an extra dopamine hit to the brain, too much of which can override our natural satiation mechanism. In addition, there is a protein which Wilson (see reference 2) describes as a molecular switch, called Delta Fos B, which is released when dopamine surges. This protein accumulates in the brain's reward circuit over time, and causes cravings for more... of whatever 'it' is. This cycle - excessive consumption and dopamine surges, followed by accumulation of Delta Fos B, followed by cravings for more - ends with structural changes to the addict's brain: it numbs their pleasure response, it gives them a hyper-reactivity to whatever they're addicted to, and it erodes their willpower. (2)
Why? What do ALL of these 'things' have in common? Some of them are behaviors, and some are substances. Some people can use these substances and/or participate in these behaviors without getting addicted - but many cannot. For example, there are an estimated 2 out of 3 Americans who are overweight (this statistic is shock to me, btw), and about half of them are obese.(3) So the rate of becoming 'addicted' to food seems pretty high. On the other hand, hard drugs like cocaine, crack and heroin only hook about 10% of people who try them. So the things in and of themselves are not necessarily the cause of the addiction. What is going on that makes some people more likely to become addicted?
What Causes Addiction?
Dr. Gabor Maté has an excellent You Tube video out entitled "What is Addiction?" (4) that answers precisely this question, in my opinion, anyway. His view is that all addictions are attempts to soothe the pain of life, to get away from distress. Interestingly, according to Maté, the brain does not distinguish between physical pain and emotional pain. When a person suffers from an emotional rejection, it lights up or activates the same part of the brain as if they had been stabbed with a knife.
In his work with severe addicts, Dr. Maté begins not by asking "Why the addiction," but instead, "Why the pain?" And in this work, with thousands of addicts, this question is always, every single time, answered by emotional loss or trauma experienced as a child. In his video, Maté quotes Keith Richards, guitarist (and famous heroin addict) from the Rolling Stones, who says, "All the contortions we go thorough (are) just not to be ourselves for a few hours." So why would anyone not want to be themselves? Because of the pain. Because it hurts. Because anything is better than having to face THAT...
Or is it? Sadly, trying to get away from the pain, to escape or avoid it, just causes more pain. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says "Whatever you do, don't try and escape from your pain, but be with it." My medicine tradition is big on teaching about surrendering to 'what is' in the moment, believing that by surrendering (as opposed to fighting against), we can move through the pain. Easy to say - and NOT so easy to do, especially when we feel our pain is going to overwhelm us. I can remember years ago worrying that if I started crying I would NEVER be able to stop. I would just shut it down if tears came up, get angry, push it away, and then reach for that next cigarette, next shot, etc...
(7)
Benefits of Suffering
A good friend once commented on suffering (and I am paraphrasing here), "Suffering is like water flowing through a canyon: the more water that flows, the deeper the canyon is gauged into the rocks; the deeper the suffering, the more it gauges out your heart, making more room for you to be filled with empathy, compassion, joy, happiness, faith, hope, and gratitude." Most spiritual traditions agree that suffering has many benefits, including teaching us greater humility, expanding our natural capacity for wisdom, increasing our creativity and resourcefulness, providing us with greater compassion, and (in our best moments) helping others who are struggling by our example. (8)
A Way Out
If you or someone you know is addicted, consider using a mindfulness technique to focus on the present moment, and not on regrets from the past or worries about the future. "Where we put our focus on is what our mind grabs onto," says Dr. Paul Gilbert. (5) If we are always focusing on the problems in our lives, we will feel worse and worse. If we instead can focus what is true in this moment ("I am safe," "I have a warm home," I have food to eat," etc), and even better, on what we are grateful for in the moment, our minds will start working like that - towards the positive. One very simple and helpful mindfulness practice: noting thoughts that come through as 'past,' 'present,' or 'future,' whenever you think of it during your waking hours. This can help to connect our conscious mind to our unconscious mental habit of living in the past or the future. I also highly recommend The Presence Process by Michael Brown as a mindfulness primer and as a way to get in touch with and release stored negative emotions.(9)
Finally, remember that none of us - and yet paradoxically, all of us - are alone. We all feel alone with our pain, but we are not. There are people who can understand how it feels, who can listen, who can empathize without criticism or judgment. And this small grace can help us, can shine a tiny ray of light into the darkness of our pain. Sometimes that's all it takes. If you are addicted and want help, or you're suffering and are not sure how to cope, please reach out to your neighborhood community, to your religious circle, to your co-workers; go to the library and look for support circles, for meditation classes, for a way to connect with others. If you are not addicted or suffering, reach out and find someone who needs a supportive, compassionate presence in their life. Become a mentor, a hospice worker, a meals-on-wheels driver... there are many opportunities to give back to the world when we are in a place of fullness. And this just in: listen to a great spiritual teacher speak on the subject of compassionate listening. (10)
This tradition of which I am part is one such supportive community. And this medicine path, although not for everyone, is one way to learn how to be more present with all of it. May all sentient beings find and share compassion in this lifetime!
(1) http://www.addictionz.com/types-of-addictions/
(2) Wilson, Gary. "The Great Porn Experiment." TED Talk, TEDxGLASCOW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU
(3) "Overweight and Obesity Statistics." NIH. http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx
(4) Mate, Gabor, PhD. "What is Addiction?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5sOh4gKPIg
(5) http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/bs-s03.htm
(6) Scharff, Constance, PhD. "Cultivating Compassion in Addiction Recovery." Psychology Today, 9/9/13. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ending-addiction-good/201309/cultivating-compassion-in-addiction-recovery
(7) http://www.robot-hugs.com/comics/2013-05-20-Nest.png
(8) "Benefits of Pain and Suffering." http://www.whypain.org/benefits_of_pain.html
(9) http://www.namastepublishing.com/products/book/presence-process-revised-edition/9781897238462
(10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUxYflkhzo
Addictions and the Brain
Before we go farther down this road, let's take another look at brain chemistry. In the last post I was talking about the dopamine-reward brain circuitry. This circuit developed to guide evolving humans towards natural rewards like food, sex, and bonding. In today's world, however, "extreme versions of natural rewards have a unique ability to capture us." (2) When we are exposed to high calorie foods, or the constant novelty of endless numbers of beautiful, potential 'mates' having sex on a screen, or anything on the above list, each occurrence gives us an extra dopamine hit to the brain, too much of which can override our natural satiation mechanism. In addition, there is a protein which Wilson (see reference 2) describes as a molecular switch, called Delta Fos B, which is released when dopamine surges. This protein accumulates in the brain's reward circuit over time, and causes cravings for more... of whatever 'it' is. This cycle - excessive consumption and dopamine surges, followed by accumulation of Delta Fos B, followed by cravings for more - ends with structural changes to the addict's brain: it numbs their pleasure response, it gives them a hyper-reactivity to whatever they're addicted to, and it erodes their willpower. (2)
Why? What do ALL of these 'things' have in common? Some of them are behaviors, and some are substances. Some people can use these substances and/or participate in these behaviors without getting addicted - but many cannot. For example, there are an estimated 2 out of 3 Americans who are overweight (this statistic is shock to me, btw), and about half of them are obese.(3) So the rate of becoming 'addicted' to food seems pretty high. On the other hand, hard drugs like cocaine, crack and heroin only hook about 10% of people who try them. So the things in and of themselves are not necessarily the cause of the addiction. What is going on that makes some people more likely to become addicted?
What Causes Addiction?
Dr. Gabor Maté has an excellent You Tube video out entitled "What is Addiction?" (4) that answers precisely this question, in my opinion, anyway. His view is that all addictions are attempts to soothe the pain of life, to get away from distress. Interestingly, according to Maté, the brain does not distinguish between physical pain and emotional pain. When a person suffers from an emotional rejection, it lights up or activates the same part of the brain as if they had been stabbed with a knife.
In his work with severe addicts, Dr. Maté begins not by asking "Why the addiction," but instead, "Why the pain?" And in this work, with thousands of addicts, this question is always, every single time, answered by emotional loss or trauma experienced as a child. In his video, Maté quotes Keith Richards, guitarist (and famous heroin addict) from the Rolling Stones, who says, "All the contortions we go thorough (are) just not to be ourselves for a few hours." So why would anyone not want to be themselves? Because of the pain. Because it hurts. Because anything is better than having to face THAT...
Or is it? Sadly, trying to get away from the pain, to escape or avoid it, just causes more pain. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says "Whatever you do, don't try and escape from your pain, but be with it." My medicine tradition is big on teaching about surrendering to 'what is' in the moment, believing that by surrendering (as opposed to fighting against), we can move through the pain. Easy to say - and NOT so easy to do, especially when we feel our pain is going to overwhelm us. I can remember years ago worrying that if I started crying I would NEVER be able to stop. I would just shut it down if tears came up, get angry, push it away, and then reach for that next cigarette, next shot, etc...
We are also not taught how to do this - how to be with our pain, with ourselves. Our parents didn't know how, or if they did, it was minimal. Nor did their parents before them. So each new generation gets to hold the unresolved pain of the last one, plus the layers passed down from our lineage, as well as our own stuff layered on top, with no tools with which to cope. We are not taught emotional intelligence as kids in school, and are in fact more likely to be further traumatized by bullies, gossip, cliques, and negative stereotyping. My peers mostly taught me about rejection, and to be more mistrustful of others and protective of myself. I can't speak for every religious tradition, but speaking personally, I was not taught how to be with myself and my pain in my Methodist church groups or though sermons. We live in a culture, as already written about in this blog, that is about instant relief, ' a pill for every ill.' We live in a culture that prizes distraction, surface beauty, and external symbols of success. As Dr. Maté says, "...we live in a culture that is based on, both economically and psychologically, on not supporting people to be with themselves." Thus, we live in a culture of addicts.
Scientists are still looking for the reasons why some people become addicted and some don't.
How Can People Be With Themselves (with their Pain)?
Buddhists believe that the way to start to end suffering (dukkha) is to first admit to oneself that suffering is unavoidable and is a natural part of life. (5) Christians believe (in part) that the way to end suffering is to turn over ones troubles to God, letting the burdens go, then praying and remembering to be thankful for all of it.
Compassion
Dr. Maté says
that people CAN learn to be with their pain, but only if there is an 'other'
present, from whom they can sense some compassion. He says, "So
addicted people need a compassionate presence which will permit them to
experience their pain without having to run away from it."
Compassion means "to suffer together." (6) It basically let's the sufferer know that they are not alone.
Compassion means "to suffer together." (6) It basically let's the sufferer know that they are not alone.
I like this treatment of the issue:
(7)A good friend once commented on suffering (and I am paraphrasing here), "Suffering is like water flowing through a canyon: the more water that flows, the deeper the canyon is gauged into the rocks; the deeper the suffering, the more it gauges out your heart, making more room for you to be filled with empathy, compassion, joy, happiness, faith, hope, and gratitude." Most spiritual traditions agree that suffering has many benefits, including teaching us greater humility, expanding our natural capacity for wisdom, increasing our creativity and resourcefulness, providing us with greater compassion, and (in our best moments) helping others who are struggling by our example. (8)
A Way Out
If you or someone you know is addicted, consider using a mindfulness technique to focus on the present moment, and not on regrets from the past or worries about the future. "Where we put our focus on is what our mind grabs onto," says Dr. Paul Gilbert. (5) If we are always focusing on the problems in our lives, we will feel worse and worse. If we instead can focus what is true in this moment ("I am safe," "I have a warm home," I have food to eat," etc), and even better, on what we are grateful for in the moment, our minds will start working like that - towards the positive. One very simple and helpful mindfulness practice: noting thoughts that come through as 'past,' 'present,' or 'future,' whenever you think of it during your waking hours. This can help to connect our conscious mind to our unconscious mental habit of living in the past or the future. I also highly recommend The Presence Process by Michael Brown as a mindfulness primer and as a way to get in touch with and release stored negative emotions.(9)
Finally, remember that none of us - and yet paradoxically, all of us - are alone. We all feel alone with our pain, but we are not. There are people who can understand how it feels, who can listen, who can empathize without criticism or judgment. And this small grace can help us, can shine a tiny ray of light into the darkness of our pain. Sometimes that's all it takes. If you are addicted and want help, or you're suffering and are not sure how to cope, please reach out to your neighborhood community, to your religious circle, to your co-workers; go to the library and look for support circles, for meditation classes, for a way to connect with others. If you are not addicted or suffering, reach out and find someone who needs a supportive, compassionate presence in their life. Become a mentor, a hospice worker, a meals-on-wheels driver... there are many opportunities to give back to the world when we are in a place of fullness. And this just in: listen to a great spiritual teacher speak on the subject of compassionate listening. (10)
This tradition of which I am part is one such supportive community. And this medicine path, although not for everyone, is one way to learn how to be more present with all of it. May all sentient beings find and share compassion in this lifetime!
(1) http://www.addictionz.com/types-of-addictions/
(2) Wilson, Gary. "The Great Porn Experiment." TED Talk, TEDxGLASCOW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU
(3) "Overweight and Obesity Statistics." NIH. http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx
(4) Mate, Gabor, PhD. "What is Addiction?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5sOh4gKPIg
(5) http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/bs-s03.htm
(6) Scharff, Constance, PhD. "Cultivating Compassion in Addiction Recovery." Psychology Today, 9/9/13. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ending-addiction-good/201309/cultivating-compassion-in-addiction-recovery
(7) http://www.robot-hugs.com/comics/2013-05-20-Nest.png
(8) "Benefits of Pain and Suffering." http://www.whypain.org/benefits_of_pain.html
(9) http://www.namastepublishing.com/products/book/presence-process-revised-edition/9781897238462
(10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUxYflkhzo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)