Cravings and Addictions
In his book, Rational Recovery, Jack Trimpey writes: "The idea of a ‘cure’ to addiction is ridiculed, scolded, and denied by every chemical dependency counselor in America... Denial is a self-canceling concept because is obliterates the self as a vital person in the struggle against addiction. The disease model of addiction is a fiction of convenience which removes the burden of individual liability. There's no genetic blemish that compels you to abuse a substance. Addiction treatment insulates addicted people from personal responsibility to change and there is a loss of freedom that comes with the ‘treatment.’ The authentic self is lost to a new self-identity as a ‘recovering’ person, struggling endlessly against the inevitable relapse... in support groups, you hang out with people whom have the same problems and then attendance may become addictive! But there is a cure, a ‘fix’ for the problem, a return to health and independent living. That is making your last drink or drug your final fix. You must develop a plan to quit and commit to abstinence."
Denial: are you really unaware that your habitual use of a substance or activity is not causing problems in your life? This is not the same as the repression or feelings or memories of events.
Disease: How is substance abuse, such as alcoholism, inherited, infect someone, or diagnosed with a lab test? How does it make you completely powerless? Is this an example of medicalizing a behavior into a "disorder"?
Genetic: You may inherit a disposition towards excessive drinking or a lack of tolerance, but do your parents (or ancestors) actually force you to drink?
Treatment: Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) statistics show a 45% drop out after the first meeting and 95% of the people never return after the first year. Yet 93-97% of conventional drug rehab and alcohol treatment centers are 12 Step or AA based.
The Harvard Mental Health Newsletter stated, "According to the best controlled studies, expensive, elaborate treatment does not have an advantage over brief counseling or no treatment at all. Of those who continue with AA following treatment, 71% continue to drink. Only 10% of all alcohol abusers are ever treated at all, but as many as 40% recover spontaneously." This means that no treatment is over 50 times more effective than treatment!
A study done at Kansas City Veteran’s Hospital showed that addicted people who received only a 20 minute counseling session and no treatment were better off one year later than people who had been through extensive addiction therapy. How often is being in treatment an excuse not to stop drinking or drugging?
The truth about AA and 12-Step Programs: The Orange Papers
Support groups: Do you hang out with people whom have the same problems? Are you addicted to meetings and dependent on others for your sobriety? Does listening to others recount ugly and painful stories of drunkenness leave you feeling even more of a need to drink? Do you feel safe and secure in a herd? Support groups allow the participants to continually re-enact their trauma.Many people become addicted to another person/sponsor.
Craving (verb) is a longing or strong desire for a substance or activity. It is an emotional and biological response that is often perceived as a "need."
Addiction (noun) is an obsessive desire to satisfy a need. It goes beyond a craving and becomes a forceful habit that a person comes to depend upon. One may physically abandon coffee (& caffeine) but miss the emotional habit of sipping it.
Symptoms of Addictions: (Similar to hypoglycemia)
Sharp mood swings, confusion, fatigue, depression, jittery, irritable, anxious.
Do You Have a Substance Dependency?
1. If you aren't sure if you have a problem with using a substance or doing an activity, you probably don't. How badly do you need it?
2. If you suspect you have a problem with a substance or activity, you probably do. If you've had negative experiences and you still keep doing it anyway, that's a problem.
3. Engaging in a continual inner debate about what to do-- use more, less changing substances, or quitting for awhile. Ambivalence indicates addiction because you are too scared to give it up.
An addictive personality is derived from a dependence on external stimulants to balance out the system. The individual is compelled to use a substance or activity as if one’s survival is at stake. Our conscious and subconscious thoughts and emotions generate a response. Getting it is all that matters.
Cravings and Addictions are an attempt to balance out or relieve one's system from the effects of shock and trauma.
Cravings are also false fuel as an inefficient way to increase energy by physical means which usually has the opposite effect. What you really hunger for is harmony and etheric energy. (See the compatibility factor).
Much of our behavior, which is ultimately under the control of the mind, is also regulated by the interaction between the sympathetic nervous system(SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), of the neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin. An imbalance creates dis-tress and a desire to relieve it-- to eliminate the pain through feeling pleasure.
The Pleasure Drive:
Stimulation of the SNS results in the release of dopamine, which motivates us to act (to eat, mate, fight or flee). The amount released depends on the intensity of the situation. The greater the stress, the more dopamine is discharged. We feel energized, sharper, and more focused. Stressful conditions can either raise or lower dopamine. It is a motor response. The effect of dopamine is to find pleasure-- a sense of, "I've got to have it!"
Acitivation of the PNS releases serotonin (along with endorphins) which produces feelings of calm, safety, and satisfaction. A stressful environment always lowers serotonin. The effect of serotonin is to find completion-- a feeling of "I've got it."
The C.A.R.E. Session
Is for those who are tired of being held captive by a compulsion. Obsessive desires are an attempt to balance out or relieve one's system from the effects of shock and trauma by decreasing the pain through feeling pleasure. Carla can help you to relieve or eliminate cravings naturally with energy in a matter of minutes.
The session is not a "cure" but will help make it much easier to free yourself from a craving or addiction. Carla cannot go against your will and program you. It isn't an "erasure technique" that will reprogram your thoughts. It helps to get you out of your personal prison or off the runaway train so that you are better able to work on the underlying causes. If you can stop abusing your substance or activity, you will be more capable of solving your psychological, social, or emotional problems. It rarely happens the other way around.
Success ultimately depends on your determination, endurance, and sincerity to liberate yourself from the enslavement of a habit. However, if the session hasn’t helped, you may return for another one (in person or over the phone) at no charge within 30 days (unless you didn't pay a fee for the first one).
The CARE Session can be included in a CIA or BEB session
When pain finally outweighs the pleasure, you will decide
to quit your addiction. Now there is definite help for you!
Resist medicalizing addiction as it diminishes your responsibility or control over your behavior.
That which you think about becomes your life: What you ponder, will be yonder.
Think for yourself-- ignore advertising and the opinion of others.
Be patient with yourself and others.
Be aware of your resistance to change. Allow the transformation to happen.
Move toward change and learn to bravely co-exist with uncertainty.
Live in the present moment.
Accept help from a Higher Power.
Grieve the loss of your substance or activity.
Make new choices.
Anti-Craving Formula (SOS):
S-- Substitutes are counterproductive. They aid in keeping the addiction going.
O-- Omit speaking about your addiction, or it will stay in your mind.
S-- Shift your focus. Think about or do something else.
Stay positive and focus on what you do want and how you want to feel