Addiction & Recovery

Last edited Mon Jul 25, 2016, 02:48 AM - Edit history (2)

"Oh fuck no. Since I believe I have a disease, therefore, I moved into an apartment above a bar, and keep a full liquor cabinet. Do you really believe that's what thinking of addiction as a disease leads to? "

Finding a healthy context to live in is a good start. But if you also map out the factors that will make it more likely that your desires and limbic activity will suppress influence from you long term goals and PFC activity, you get a brand new set of levers to pull. A lot of these have nothing to do with any known disease. They are not closely related to causes of addiction, but are compensatory in nature. That is you compensate for a given weakness by enhancing some other aspect of function. This leads to less "giving in". And it presupposes a detailed map of vulnerabilities and more importantly of opportunities for improvement.