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Re: Addiction Is a Brain Disease - Leshner
From: TedL719@yahoo.com (Ted L.)
In article
<3c0e3fcd-99df-4767-b327-e872af07199c@t20g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>,
jimbo <jblair@videotron.ca> wrote:
On Sep 1, 12:14 pm, "(David P.)" wrote:
Addiction Is a Brain Disease
Would that cover some addictions, many addictions or all addictions?
Jim
I'd suggest you look at Gerald May's book "Addiction and Grace" -- he
argues that the mechanism for all addictions is the same, and is
actually a survival mechanism gone to the extreme. The mechanism is
homeostasis -- the brain likes to keep things the way they are, "normal"
-- unfortunately, when you become addicted to something (substance or
behavior) having that something becomes "normal" and the brain works at
great length to maintain that unhealthy normalcy. It is even possible
to have withdrawal symptoms from "purely" behavioral addictions. What I
especially liked about his discussion is that phobias or other abnormal
aversive behavior are manifestations of the same mechanism -- except
that instead of abnormally striving to have something, the brain is
abnormally striving to avoid something.
--
Ted L.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
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