The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
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information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
I was reading about the findings of a researcher on addiction, Karen Ersche. She studies the effects of cocaine on the brain. In the report she says:
"I have also become increasingly intriguied by the question of occasional drug use can turn into addiction in some people, while others seem to be resilient to the adverse effects of the drug. Are some brains wired for addiction? Possibly. In a recent study, I found that people who lose control over their drug use have changes in the part of the brain that are critical to the formation of habits, as well as in areas that regulate self-control abilities. Most strikingly, these changes were seen not only in people with cocaine dependence, but also in their non-dependent brothers and sisters. This suggests that their ability to form habits easily and their deficiencies in self-control were there before they started taking drugs. The key question is now why the siblings, whose brains show similar abnormalities, did not develop drug addiction themselves. The short answer is: they did not experiment with drugs! In this study, I found that sensation-seeking personalities predicted whether a person tries drugs, but the impulsive personality trait, linked to poor self-control, predicted whether or not this person became addicted to drugs after trying them. While the unaffected siblings shared impulsive traits with their addicted brothers and sisters, they did not show sensation-seeking personality traits, which probably protcted them from the risk of initiating drug use."
So sensation-seeking + impulsive = risk for addiction. My ex-AH was certainly sensation-seeking and impulsive both. I think it demonstrates what we know from experience: that some people are wired to be vulnerable. Add in a background of pain (which people seek an escape from) and often a background that suggests drinking/drugs are a normal familiar way to spend your time, and you get a really high risk of addiction.
The quote is from a publication that's hard to get, but I think everything that needs to be said is said right there.
Aloha Mattie...looking for understanding is a good endeavor keep at it. I also went after understanding this disease including college. You cite one piece of understanding; critical to the formation of habits. Addition is habit out of control. That is the consequence of poor/no management and at that point the chemical takes over management...it decides where, when, how and how much with continued use and abuse leading toward the insanity/fatal consequence. One of the psychological markers for addiction is "risk taking" and you have mentioned citing impulse and poor impulse control. Addicts and alcoholics have been described in part as being "way out there" when it comes to presentation and behavior and the use of mind and mood altering chemicals makes that progressively worse. Alot of addictions have started with resistance to the choice/behavior with some part of it being disagreeable however with continued use the mind and mood and the body become use to the behavior and begins to like and accept the processes...people, places, things. Where at once there was rejection to the chemical or process there now is acceptance...voluntary or even still involuntary (using against will or better judgement). Most of it falls under the description of habit. Recovery is often viewed as a substitution habit. Good post. ((((hugs))))
Interesting thread here! My siblings had addictions while (as hard as I tried to join'em instead of beat them) I didn't develop and addiction to drugs or alcohol. I gave it the best collage try I swear. However what I did do was develop and eating disorder (which can also come under the umbrella of addiction). I started at about 14 yrs old, got to be a skinny as I could without dieing. But my family was in denial, not about my siblings but by my literally starving myself. I got help only after my 1st child was born, I had the will to live. I was in intensive outpatient therapy for 3 yrs. I learned much about myself during that time. And I got myself to a "goal" weight at the end of those 3 yrs. I kept that goal weight almost 18 yrs. I had tools to help me etc. But the minute I get stressed about my A the first thing I do is stop eating, it just switches a click in my head and I am back into dysfunction. Thankfully Alanon taught me HALT I in turn taught my husband HALT so when i was off track he can remind me.
Despite all my husband and I tried our son became an addict. My belief is it is genetic. We may carry that gene and be able to resist addiction or we may get hooked on that first high. Who knows
I have taken an informal poll of sorts amongst other alcoholic/addicts and have found that as a population, we were generally the little 12 year olds sneaking cigarettes, then the ones smoking pot and drinking in high school (more than most kids). The pattern of sneaking, lying, and doing risky things starts pretty early when we (alcoholics and addicts) look back. It is rare that someone just gets knocked on their butt by addiction in their 50s or 60s - but that does happen too. In those instances, it is almost always self-medicating through a disturbing life transition though. More commonly it is like you mentioned: A pattern of sensation seeking and risk taking which is evident early on.
My son had absolutely no fear of anything as a very, very small child. As an example, my x and I had just put our two year old son to bed in the safety of his baby-proofed bedroom in his big boy toddler bed. It's 10 at night. We think he's asleep and safe in his bed and in his room. The telephone rings while we watch TV together. My husband answers it, yells thanks, throws down the phone and starts running upstairs shouting the neighbor just saw ... hanging out of the upstairs window. X pulls the baby out of the window just before he drops from the second floor window in his room. We nail the windows upstairs so that there can be air and no escape from the inside. We remove the nails when son is almost 6. Son and daughter playing in their rooms in our cape cod after breakfast. I'm washing dishes. There's a knock at the back door. My son, white faced at the door? Tells me his sister pushed him out the window. Daughter says, "uh-uh. U wore my coat to pwetend u were superman and jumped." Raced him to the hospital. The only thing that saved him according to ER was the fact that he had a stocky body and his body had been propelled to the grassy area outside our house rather than straight down onto the sidewalk that ran next to it which probably would have killed him.
This was my son for all of his life and still is in many ways. Brain damaged area after his being hit by a car at 16 exacerbated what was already in him as an infant, toddler, etc.
So sensation-seeking + impulsive = risk for addiction. My ex-AH was certainly sensation-seeking and impulsive both. I think it demonstrates what we know from experience: that some people are wired to be vulnerable. Add in a background of pain (which people seek an escape from) and often a background that suggests drinking/drugs are a normal familiar way to spend your time, and you get a really high risk of addiction.
OMGosh Mattie this sooo spoke to me because it is exactly what I have been saying just not so direct and fluid. The other factor I want to add in is the lack of coping skills for life's normal up's and down's as well as the more dramatic life up's and down's.
That is my STBAX to a T .. he's all about what makes him feel good. That makes real life all better, all feel goods and it allows an addictive personality to hide from the emotional consequences of guilt, shame and so on. Very great read!!
Thanks for sharing!! S :)
__________________
Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you've got all the answers, then don't call what you do "faith". - Brene Brown
"Whatever truth you own doesn't own you" - Gary John Bishop
My ideas about alcoholism and addiction have changed a bit over time.... Since in Alanon we do not really need to know exactly what is is, there is no need to discuss it here. What is more important, is how we family members react, cope, and then flourish whether the alcoholic is drinking, or not.
Living in a small town, the flood of shares here has broadened my view of the illness even further... ...I used to have bouts of anger at myself that I did not get smart sooner! I kind of grieving for lost opportunities... and much better to go through and get over with!
There are cultural uses for many substances on the planet, including alcohol. Most are, or are derived from, natural things- but they are dangerous, sometimes fatal for some people.
Its not something I get really anxious about any more. It does interest and concern me. But what is more important is what I alone can do about it, in my own situation. And what, with others, I can seek to change....
My ideas about alcoholism and addiction have changed a bit over time.... Since in Alanon we do not really need to know exactly what is is, there is no need to discuss it here. What is more important, is how we family members react, cope, and then flourish whether the alcoholic is drinking, or not.