What is addiction?

Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences. Prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases. (Adopted by the ASAM Board of Directors | September 15, 2019)
“Any repeated behavior, substance-related or not, in which a person feels compelled to persist, regardless of its negative impact on his life and the lives of others. ...Current research reveals that there’s nothing about ordinary people that make them more prone to addiction, there’s nothing intrinsic, there’s nothing innate, there’s nothing in their nature, their character that drives them to addiction.” 
​ - Gabor Mate, MD
​
​Fr. Sam Portaro, author and former Episcopalian chaplain to the University of Chicago, defined addiction in this way:

“The heart of addiction is dependency, excessive dependency, and unhealthy dependency – unhealthy in the sense of unwholesome dependency that disintegrates and destroys.” (p. 129, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts).

Someone experiencing an addiction will:

  • Be unable stay away from the substance or stop the addictive behavior
  • Display a lack of self-control
  • Have an increased desire for the substance or behavior
  • Dismiss how their behavior may be causing problems
  • Lack an emotional response
  • Over time, addictions can seriously interfere with your daily life.
  • People experiencing addiction are also prone to cycles of relapse and remission.
  • They may cycle between intense and mild use.
  • Addictions will typically worsen over time.
  • The addictions can lead to permanent health complications and serious consequences in an individual’s life.

You should absolutely seek treatment if your addiction is

  • Severing your relationships
  • Creating vulnerability over influence of alcohol, drugs, sex, porn, gambling, etc.
  • Causing painful side effects
  • Creating a sense of guilt
  • Creating a strong dependency/craving
  • Increasing depression
  • Increasing anxious personality traits
  • Inducing intensive feelings of hopelessness
  • Increasing aggressive behaviors
  • Increasing self-harming behaviors
  • Causing you financial stress
  • Causing you to engage in acts you find immoral

The Backwards Brain Bicycle  |  Smarter Every Day 

​A man learns to unlearn his ability to ride a bike by learning how to ride a bike which steers the opposite way. This story is a fascinating practical example of neuroplasticity (the ability of our brains to modify themselves, to change neural pathways).  Destin had welders at his workplace modify a bike. 

​How difficult can it be? 

Watch and see. . . .
​This might seem like an easy change to get used to, but it isn't, in good part because riding a bike is cognitively a lot harder than we realize. Consciously, it feels easy once you know how to ride, but your brain is taking into account all kinds of factors and running them through a fairly complex algorithm to keep you going. If you change one of the variables, things stop working. 
 
But make sure to watch to the end, because just as interesting is how Destin practiced riding this weird bike for eight months every day, and how after that he tried riding a normal bike again. Very interesting to see how our brains work!

The Backwards Bike, Discipline, and Recovery 
What does riding a backwards bike have to do with addiction, recovery, and discipline? A lot.

What is addiction? 

What are the causes of addiction?

"A moment comes for every addict when the consequences are so great or the pain is so bad that the addict admits life is out of control because of his or her sexual behavior."
- Dr. Patrick Carnes

What is sex addiction?  
Learn more...

What is porn addiction? 
Learn more...