The only addiction we have is to poor beliefs.
Addiction is a real reaction, but the ability for it to control us is severely exaggerated. Addiction is glorified, and it is driven purely by focus. When we give something energy, it seems real. The institution of excuse is what keeps us addicted, not the substance, itself. Logically, if the brain's neuropathways can be physically altered to release signals when ingesting something, causing mental, emotional and physical dependence, it can ultimately be altered to crave anything that causes a more powerful or consistent reaction.
Knowing this returns power to us. Alcohol, for example, while having proven physical effects on the brain, affects people in different ways. This is the interesting part, though. If we know that the brain is made up of electrical processes, and that's how our entire nervous system communicates, then we must also understand that every other habit -- which can also be considered an addiction -- must have been created in similar ways, neurologically. In other words, we expose ourselves to stimuli and such stimuli causes us to unconsciously perform a neurological reaction.
This concludes that the unemotional electrical charges that control us must be conditioned and strengthened to go off in certain sequences by some catalyst other than the "addictive" cause. It satisfies the belief that interpretation of such cause, which then leads to emotional reactions, is the true reason for the conditioning. In other words, addiction is a pattern, not a personality. It's learned, not inherited.
This is exactly what we talk about how to overcome in Episode 24 of X Squared.
This adds to the theory that identifying as an addict -- while it is incredible for temporary, realistic self-awareness -- is no longer true after we've become clean of such addiction and, therefore, solidifies the addictive identity, strengthening such beliefs. Philosophically, this is the irony. What seems to be the cause is not the cause; the fact that we believe it has correlation then allows it to have effect, at all. It's basically a red herring.
That is the trap.
Overcoming addiction means you're no longer an addict. However, it doesn't mean we can return to the cause of the addiction, either. They are unrelated subjects at that point. Just because we no longer ingest the addiction and, therefore, have overcome it, does not mean that tempting ourselves is intelligent, since we know the nervous system has been programmed to function in certain ways in the past. Simply, it no longer has any significance. Ironically, it's this belief -- the belief that it is part of our identities -- that is exponentially more powerful than any addiction, itself.
Interestingly enough, the solution is believing in our own capabilities to identify as something different than we currently are. We must believe in our own capabilities to create new patterns that empower us and diminish the powers outside of focus. I would argue that the skill to implement this powerful realization is the most important thing anyone can ever learn -- that what we believe is who we are, who we are is determined by what we believe, and what we believe can be altered to support who we want to become.
Comments