Before
going to bed last night, I felt compelled to leave the waking work with a tweet
Okay, one last thought/question. Does#addiction challenge a negative or chase a positive?
At this
juncture I just want to clarify what I mean (and use more than 140 characters
to do so.) A crux of addiction, and it’s treatment as a psychical issue, is the
question of whether the addiction fills a void for the addict or whether it
offers a state of advanced pleasure (or orgasm) that can be achieved only
through abuse of a certain substance or activity.
On the outside
there are similarities in both positions – the addict seeks to use their
addiction to obtain something – something to fill the void or something to give
them pleasure. However, their differences are far more worrying.
For the
addict who abuses to fill a void there is only despair or ‘normality’ (an imperfect
term but something most aim toward.) That which is abused offers only to stabilise
that which is already broken. As such, treatment of such an addict must surely
centre on what is causing the void in the first place.
Conversely,
if the addiction is the method by which the addict achieves
excitation/nirvana/orgasm then it must be treated in a manner that recognises
this. In such cases might we not instead try to understand why the specific addiction
was chosen (perhaps not consciously) and focus treatment around this?
I hope that
in some way helps decipher the ideas running through my head when I posted that
tweet.
