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Addiction from Another Perspective
Why do people become addicted? What is the fundamental mechanism? Of course, this questionhas been answered to varying degrees and in varying ways. Whether you consider the physicalaspects of addiction where changes occur in the brain, or the psychological mechanism thattriggers an addiction many theories already exist.This article is strictly my opinion. It is my personal attempt to understand addiction and I don'tclaim to have any scientific backing for my model of addiction. Nor do I seek any. I'm merelytrying to understand addiction in terms that make sense to me personally. If this is useful to youin some way, then so much the better.Addiction can be a powerful force in our lives. I hold that addiction occurs with each of us tovarying degrees. Drug and alcohol addictions are the most obvious to us because their destructive effects are very evident. But what about those addictions that are not so obvious. Doyou have a favorite food? A favorite song? Why do we choose one thing over another? Why do people choose differently?On a purely physical realm it appears that our brains become stimulated in a certain way that weenjoy and therefore we are left with a memory that is pleasurably associated with a certainstimulus such as a sound or a taste or a sensation. Could this be the basis for addiction?Since we are beings with an organic component, this makes complete sense. Once an impressionis made on us it is either postivive or negative and we have a 'feeling' that goes with that.Being creatures that enjoy pleasure over pain we naturally seek to relive positive experiences andavoid negative ones.Therefore, if we had an experience that triggered a negative feeling, such as the taste of garlic,then we may forever hate the taste of garlic. Yet, someone else's early experience or experienceswith garlic may have been quite pleasurable. Therefore, they actually enjoy the taste and smell of garlic even to the point that they always use it or cook with it.Being similar in our organic components, how can such divergent reactions occur?The only differential seems to be the original experience itself and how we reacted to it. Thatexperience and reaction creates a record in our brains. This must be how two different brains canhave such different reactions to the same substance or experience.Then are we at the mercy of our first experience in regards to any particular stimuli?Yes, if we don't do anything about it. However, if we really exert our will, we should be able tochange our reaction to virtually anything.Therefore, through exertion of willpower an addiction, any addiction, should be defeatable. Of course, things are not necessarily that simple in the real world. But in principle and in myopinion, it seems to be this way.
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