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Re: Addiction Is a Brain Disease - Leshner
From: connectutoos@verizon.net (F.H.)
Ted L. wrote:
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.
Makes sense to Moi. I suspect Becker ideas are involved in the "striving to avoid /something/"
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