Addicts, Mythmakers and Philosophers

[Philosophy Now]

Alan Brody explains Plato’s/Socrates’ understanding of habitually bad behavior.

http://philosophynow.org/issues/90/Addi ... ilosophers

[aosborn]

Very interesting piece: thank you to the author. I have always thought that addiction behaviors brought with them a certain level of defiance of human limits. I think here of gambling addiction: the odds of winning, say, a spin of the roulette wheel are known exactly, and yet the gambling addict continues to play, and why? To prove to him/herself that s/he is above mundane numbers, that somehow they are a special person not bound by the laws of statistics. Every win, no matter how small, confirms this false image; every loss, however great, must be countered with evidence that it is untrue.

Taken with what the author wrote, then, one might imagine (superficially, anyway) a model of addiction based on three conditions: a means to rationalize what is usually 'bad' to be 'good,' some aspect of addiction mentality to which the addict succumbs over and over, and an over-arching belief in one's ability to survive what others can not.

[Jack Baret]

Excellent discussion so far about the topic of addiction and understanding human limits and finding ways to surpass them or at least to control them so they do us no harm. The latest comment from a reader who says;

"I have always thought that addiction behaviors brought with them a certain level of defiance of human limits"

is spot on. I would like to add that we constantly employ a cognitive dissonance, i.e. 'When two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people will do all in their power to change them until they become consistent,' to reduce the stress and allow to discordant ideas/action some measure of consistency. However we can still hold two mutually exclusive ideas without going into a panic mode so long as they are simultaneous until proven otherwise and the truth obliterates the previous held simultaneous views. We may run into trouble when we make our wonderful actions/thoughts/ideas a successional series of unfinished business as we flit from one situation to the next without putting closure on the previous one. For example we assume that we will catch up to losing our last bet at the casino by winning more than we lost in the previous bet. Yet deep down we know that the statistics will prove otherwise and the house will always win since it has all the logic, statistics and profitable outcome on its side.

It's the same with our mortality. We don't realize that there are a certain number of days allotted to our lives and they may be fixed or variable depending on how we choose to live. Yet fortune plays into our mortality and strikes at any moment although we can't really live an authentic life under her oppression. We let the Goddess Fortuna play her hand while we hold our cards tightly to our breast to try an live a good life in the choices we make by following a more stoic and prudent course to avoid the death that will eventually come as long as possible

So it goes with addiction when we think we can control the outcome of our choices even if one of them contradicts the other when it comes to good life. For example drinking versus going for a nature walk or reading a good book or making love. In pursuing the ultimate good place to be we think that five drinks are not enough to bolster our behaviour for a favourable outcome and one drink is too many!

Sincerely; Jack

[commonsense]

As he is a licensed psychotherapist, I am surprised that Dr. Brody didn’t see addiction in another (or additional) way. That is, the explanation for addiction may be rooted in typical maladaptive human behavior.

Two factors figure prominently in human addictive behavior: safety and convenience.

In a stressful world, it is important to have a calming mechanism to provide safety from overwhelming anxiety. If the stress reaction tends toward a debilitating fear, it is even more important to have a way to escape from stress.

The high of addiction represents a bit of relief from whatever it is that makes the addict uneasy. There may be a genetic reason that this relief manifests in the form of addictive behavior, or this may be a learned maladaption.

Employing addictive behavior is not so much a matter of doing what might seem to be in the individual’s best interest as it is a matter of following the path of least resistance. The conservation of energy is one way to prepare for the next onslaught of stressful stimulation.

All and all, Dr. Brody provides great insight into addiction. however safety and convenience are two factors of addictive behavior that the author omitted.

[Walker]

Addiction ends in an instant. Afterwards, the body adapts to the changes which at first include craving.