What are you addicted to? [other than blogs]

This is becoming a weekly rant as I watch relevant documentaries on BBC 2 and come away either enthused or with my blood boiling. This time I’m somewhere in between…

“Am I Normal?” this time presented by Dr Tanya Byron [clinical psychologist] asked the controversial question “Is Addiction a disease or the excuse used by weak willed people to absolve responsibility?” More specifically, is being addicted to something like drugs, alcohol, porn, chocolate or online gaming an illness, or an excessive choice by the individual?

In our quote “therapy saturated culture” can addicts such as big name celebrities hide behind the label and plead “its my disorder that controls me”, or is it a chosen escape vehicle for the desperate and needy?

Fascinating to learn that early psychologists linked alcohol to mental health and the word “addiction” became a negative. This was one of the ideas that fuelled the prohibition laws in the 1920’s.

I found myself liking Dr Jeffry Schaler who categorically states society uses the label as an excuse for weak willed people to self-indulge. Addicts choose to stay addicted.

Here’s the science part - we were shown clinical evidence that shows the troublesome behaviour/substance stimulates the release of Dopamine in the brain, making you want more of it.

But at what point does a passionate pastime become an addiction? One definition was that “its an excessive enthusiasm if it adds to your daily life, and its an addiction if it takes away from your daily life”. My response is “according to whom?”

Computer games give you the Dopamine rush from killing foes or gaining levels. Online gambling sites are designed to give you “nearly won” more than “won” because the Dopamine rush of a “nearly won” makes you want to bet again.

And oh dear, the TFT guy went down like a lead balloon. His crusading “I can cure 98% of issues because I come from the university of results and I can fill seminars” spiel sounded embarassingly like the gung ho lines I used to come out with, until I realised that the person’s conscious mind needs a ritual to go through to let the unconscious mind change, and therefore no one ritual fits all.

The EMDR guy just used trance, suggestions and negative imagery to pattern interrupt his smoking client, and guess what? He started smoking again. Quelle surprise!

By far the most important, and I’d say most understated conclusion in this documentary, was the revealing statistics that say 60-70% of addicts eventually grow out of the behaviour of their own accord. It’s like a “phase” they’re going through. Unfortunately, some addicts phases can last decades, if not a lifetime!

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Breaking news – The “Project FP” countdown has begun:

http://www.CoachTherapist.com

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Even if we answered the question posed, my response is “So what next?” If all addictions are illness, so what next? A boom in therapy? If addictions are all conscious choices, so what next?” The death of therapy?

Debate raged around the idea of control of use versus responsibility of use. Surely its not an either or but includes both?

And another thing – I have to point out that Dr Byron does a lot of “mind reading” when she listens to what a client says, then interprets it and suggests her label for what they just said. Clean Language and NLP prohibited that addiction decades ago!

Tony Robbins suggested [or rather borrowed someone else’s model and renamed it as he was taught to do by Jay Abraham using Jay’s Maven Strategy] that any behaviour that meets 3 of the 6 human needs becomes an addiction. And that’s a very individual thing. Until they find another more effective vehicle that meets those needs, which would tie in with the “phase” concept.

By the way, if you’re a TFT or EFT user [and I chose that term carefully] is it normal for you to tap the client? I always practice a hands off approach and get them to learn tapping points themselves, and besides, I don’t like litigation. Feedback please…

Dr Byron’ conclusions? Addiction is an illness and there are loads of unproven complementary and alternative practitioners making boatloads of cash out of it.
That makes me so angry, I’m off to play World Of Warcraft for 3 days…