A Theory??? Addiction Recovery and this Website

[xru11]

I have a theory.  Now hear me out and don't get me wrong.  First I wanna say that if it wasn't for this website and specifically, if it wasn't for certain members here, I don't think I would have made it to my Day (7).  Really, I woulda broke down out of sheer duty to work and family with a:

                               "I have to function, I'll just wait till a time with less stress in my life."

But No.

You folks (and one person in particular): (1) Underscored how really bad this stuff is (2) the cold sober truth that it can be done but that it sure as hek won't be easy (3) I am not alone (4) the longer I wait the harder it will be (5) life gets better

Now here's the rub.

What if obsessing over the problem by daily visits and posts here on this site well after a reasonable withdrawal period, what if co-miserating with others in similar circumstances merely reinforces a psychosomatic feedback loop and thereby exacerbates the perception of symptoms that wouldn't be there if you just stopped thinking about it so much.  If you expect to be miserable and in pain you will be.

Its been been 7 days for me, and its still not great, but hey I can't complain.  I feel Okay?!?.  The mind is a powerful tool.  It can be used for or against you.  But if every day we wake up we start here on this site, we reprogram our mind to expect pain and misery or at least the dull malaise and if every night before we go to bed we do it again (by visiting this site) aren't we merely reinforcing expectations?

What if as an experiment, we decided to convince ourselves that we are healed and healed completely.  That we are normal.  What if we swore off the site for three days.  It would be easier for me cuz except for one or two of you I haven't really bonded with anyone.

I just want your thoughts on this, I'm not asking you folks to quit corresponding with me.  Frankly I kinda look forward to hearing from you guys n gals each day but think about this.
Let me reiterate that I am so grateful for find this place on the web.  But food for thought.  Now go think happy and healthy!

[xru11]

I am going to put money where my mouth is and I am going to leave this website for one week.  For one week I will live without obsessing on my recovery,... on my so-called post-withdrawal symptoms.  I will not feed my brain with reinforcing data and testimony as to the inevitable,.......... written by others.

Take care all who helped me (and you did!).  I will report back in a week.

[xru11]

Look, we as species have evolved, and we are obsessed with compartmentalizing things into neat little boxes in order to make sense of a complicated world we don't really understand completely.  That's a disease,...that is not.  Drug Addiction is no more or no less a disease than cancer or MS or obesity, or risk taking.  In my view, we all start out with a set of genes that define the initial probability(s) for everything.  Then environment comes along and either dampens or enhances the proclivity for behaviors or circumstances.  And then, well stuff happens.  Ya get prostrate cancer or breast cancer or your a risk-taker or a pill popper.  Thing is the very act of living is the slow and subtle progression of a very long disease, namely aging and death.  I didn't start this post to argue whether or not drug addiction is a disease.  I started because whether or not it is or isn't, once you make up your mind to quit, once you've gone through  a reasonable withdrawal period,  You HAVE TO STOP OBSESSING OVER THE PAST AND THE PROBLEM!!!!  We have to stop feeding our brains with input suggesting we still must suffer because Bornagain12 still hurts, I must too,.... because JoeShmo24 is on day 44 and still feels bad so to will I.  I never had anxiety, but on this website I learned that that comes with the  "Sub Package" of post withdrawal and sure enough I now have anxiety!!!!!  How much of it is real and how much of it have I "learned" from you folks????

[dominosarah]

why does everyone have to use such big words??  I had to get out a dictionary for some of them!!!!!

I tend to use the word "addiction" over disease.  Im not sure i really buy the disease thing either.  If you have MS or cancer or something like that that is a disease.  Everything has to have disease at the end of it anymore.  The word is used way to much in my opinion.            sara

[laurel453]

for me it's a disease while abusing , not after. I have to adapt myself to the new situation of living clean of pills , but no way i'm feeling in the middle of any disease now.

[NautyOne]

I take way a lot of flack for this, but ......I don't believe it is a disease, unless proven a fact and not theory........

There.....I said it in all little words.......are you proud of me or just trying to annoying me?

Nauty.........:-))

[sailing1]

OK Nauty, I'm probably gonna annoy you again with this dictionary entry for "disease," and as you can see, it would not be difficult to apply at least two of the definitions to what people addicted to drugs and/or alcohol go through.

I do think that xru has some very valid points, but until we throroughly understand our brains (and nano-scopic functions of our bodies) and all of the chemical functions and possible abnormalities that may occur in one, I am holding off on saying whether drug addiction is not a disease, obesity is not a disease, alcoholism is not a disease etc.  

Certainly each person has choices to make regarding using, but what genetic, biologic and/or chemical factors predispose one person to abuse and another to simple use?  I don't know and, so far, neither do the scientists studying such things.  yada yada yada......I know.........


Main Entry: dis·ease  
Pronunciation: \di-ˈzēz\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English disese, from Anglo-French desease, desaise, from des- dis- + eise ease
Date: 14th century
1obsolete : trouble
2: a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms : sickness , malady
3: a harmful development (as in a social institution)