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When Society Becomes An Addict!

An essential part of changing or recovering from harmful life choices (ADDICTIONS) is education about the patterns, how they began, what forces influenced their creation (conditioned them), and what are the inner and outer forces that may cause them to reoccur or continue.

When I read the following two books it gave me understanding about how my my family and society deeply influence me, what warning signs to look for that I'm being pulled into OLD ways of responding, and how to take corrective measures to transform my addictions. I realized that I come from a "big dysfunctional family"--the human family and the American culture, and as such, I have been deeply influenced and conditioned by them.

When Society Becomes An Addict by Anne Wilson Schaef. To look inside (table of contents, introduction, excerpts, and index)  the book at Amazon-- www.amazon.com. Available new and used.

In1987 Anne wrote: Our society is deteriorating at an alarming rate. As we watch the news and read the news papers, we are increasingly made aware of corruption in high places, financial collapse, and a lack of morality in settings ranging from preschools to meat packing plants....our "healers" are taking sexual advantage of their clients. As a society, we are responding not with action but with a widespread malaise...Apathy and depression have become synonymous with adjustment. Rather than looking for ways to change, to save ourselves, we are becoming more conservative, more complacent, and more defensive of the status quo.

Those few individuals who notice and draw attention to these growing problems are met with massive denial. When they run for for public office, they are not elected. When they confront us with what they know, they are ignored, dismissed, or discredited.

...Our society is the fact that the system in which we live is an addictive system. It has all the characteristics and exhibits all the process of the individual alcoholic or addict...Just as with the addict, one has to say that the society has a disease. It is not itself the disease. If it admits having the disease, it has the option of recovery...The good news is that, like the individual alcoholic/addict, the Addictive System can recover. Before that can happen, though, we must name and accept the disease. We must admit that the society we care about has a disease and can recover from that disease. We must also be willing to do the necessary work toward recovery..."

Anne continues to define ADDICTION as: "any process over which we are powerless. It takes control of us, causing us to do and think things that are inconsistent with our personal values and leading us to become progressively more compulsive and obsessive. A sure sign of an addiction is the sudden need to deceive ourselves and others--to lie, deny, and cover up. An addiction is anything we feel tempted to lie about. An addiction is anything we are not willing to give up...like any serious disease, an addiction is progressive, and it will lead to death unless we actively recover from it...

An addiction keeps us unaware of what is going on inside us. We do not have to deal with our anger, pain, depression, confusion, or even our joy and love, because we do not feel them, or we feel them only vaguely. We stop relying on our knowledge and our senses and start relying on our confused perceptions...We lose contact with ourselves, we also lose contact with other people and the world around us. An addiction dulls and distorts our sensory input...eventually we lost the ability to become intimate with others...An addiction absolves us from having to take responsibility for our lives. We assume that someone--or something--outside ourselves will swoop down to make things better or help us to deal with what we are going through."

Addictions can be divided into two major categories: substance (alcohol, drugs, nicotine, caffeine, food, and people) and process (accumulating money, gambling, sex, work, religion, or worry). Anne goes on to describe and explore the addictive system as a hologram, recounting all of its characteristics.

The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior by Craig Nakken To look inside (table of contents, introduction, excerpts, and index)  the book at Amazon-- www.amazon.com. Available new and used.

Synopsis
This is the second edition of a work that aims to explore the processes of addiction. It examines how addiction starts, how society pushes people towards addiction, and what happens inside those who become addicted, examining topics such as genetic factors and addiction, cultural influences, the progressive nature of addiction and steps to a successful recovery. It may be of use to health practioners, as well as,  those setting out on the road to recovery.

Ingram
For nearly a decade, Addictive Personality has helped people understand the process of addiction. Now, this revised edition brings new depth and dimension to our understanding of how an individual becomes an addict -including cultural influences and genetic factors-as he examines addiction's causes, stages of development, and consequences. Nakken covers genetic factors tied to addiction, cultural influence on addictive behavior, the progressive nature of the disease, and steps to a successful recovery.

Consider exploring: Thoughts on Healing & Helping Yourself and Others

RESOURCES:

Venerable Robina Courtin- Addiction VS Freedom! MP3

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The Center for Addiction Management http://www.addictionmanagement.org/  Provides research-based solutions for an age old problem. Explore: Understanding Addiction, Long-term Solutions, Evaluation & Assessment, and much more.

My Addiction.com  http://www.myaddiction.com  MyAddiction.com is an online educational and informational website on Addiction and Recovery which includes information on addiction categories such as nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, prescription drugs, sex, gambling and eating disorders.
 

Top Addictions URL: http://www.topaddictions.com/ Description: Website giving Information, Tips and Programs Overcoming the Addictions of an Addict