Addiction.

In spiritual circles you might hear addiction described as a loss of the Self or Soul.
People often say the addictive behaviour is an attempt to get Home, a longing to experience their true self.

From a nervous system perspective the behaviour is actually trying to find Home....ostasis.

When someone becomes dysregulated due to their life circumstances they will get 'stuck' pinging between a shutdown response & over activation.
Using external means to try and regulate is a natural human inclination.

Some of these means are stigmatised by society, some are rewarded. The mechanism however, is the same.

If we only spend our time looking at the surface level manifestation of addiction then we can never truly understand.
We'll get stuck treating symptoms and telling people to "just say No"

This lens with which the collective has viewed addiction up until now has seen a slow steady increase in addiction rates over the past couple of centuries, despite a 'war' being declared nearly 100 years ago.

It's time to look under the hood I'd say.....

Within every single human being lies the Compulsion to Escape.

It is universal, it is the same mechanism in all.
Think of it like the temperature gauge in your car. It's a spectrum.

Underlying emotional trauma, held within the body & nervous system is what drives this gauge up.
When the gauge hits the point of 'overheating' the compulsion to escape will be too great for someone to control. Will power does not work here.

People with addiction issues are 'overheating' all the time.
As a society once we can look past the behaviour alone and see this, we can treat the human being with compassion & love.

We can END the shaming & stigma with this lens.

When you treat the underlying trauma the compulsion to escape comes down.
Once the compulsion to escape is down the behaviour starts to stop of its own accord.
This is 'bottom up' treatment, not symptom management.

Peace,
Ryan Hassan (Co-Founder at The Centre for Healing)

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