Power...

I am continually impressed by the power of the disease of addiction. Each day I am confronted by the power that the disease holds over people who otherwise are lovable, personable and well-intentioned. Instead, they become unendearing, disagreeable, mean-spirited people who are driven to satisfy self ends. I'm certain the someone would get the Nobel Prize if they could pin down why this happens for certain, but there are clues.

Using drugs changes the way the brain works because addiction is a brain disease. In effect, drug users' brains are broken. Addled by the drugs (to paraphrase Eugene O'Neill), people are saddled with the effects. The brain becomes confused: It thinks that the enormous pleasure and relief that comes from the drug is the normal process for its functioning and it becomes used to them in the system. Some drugs create their own demand in the nerve cells and alter them to fit the way the drug wants the cell to behave. All drugs create a condition in which tolerance and withdrawal become a chief characteristic of the nerve's functioning. To be able to change nerve cells - and ultimately the way the brain functions - shows the substances have enormous power. Moreover, this power compromises one of mankind's greatest assets, willpower, and the person is most often left with no capacity to repair this broken system on their own.

Thus, the second stage of the drug's power kicks in even when the person is technically not using any drugs. When abstinent, the nerve cells throb for attention and demand the drugs they had become so accustomed to feed on. When not there, the nerves goes crazy, and this is what we call the cravings and urges to use that overcome many people. Relapsing, bringing drugs back into the broken nerve cells, is often the only thing that can quell the screaming tantrum that nerve cells exhibit when deprived of their drug. Willpower is immobilized, frozen into a state of panic, and it's only value to the relapsing addict or alcoholic is to find a way to get more and use drugs. This is the reason that other people often see the signs and symptoms of relapse much earlier than when the person is often using and we have called this stage the "dry drunk sundrome".

How to restore power to willpower is the chief motive for drug treatment. To fix a broken brain requires the infusion of the food upon which willpower derives its energy...principles, ideas, morals, values, and meaning in life. Absent these things we have a situation about which we discussed earlier when we talked about having meaning in life that Viktor Frankl spoke about (see posting February 27, 2010). The parts of the brain that deal with meaning in life had been hijacked by the drugs and now must be restored to their rightful place as the governing forces of the brain's activity. In other words, willpower must be given the power to act in the addict's best interest which is to thrive, prosper and ultimately to live.

Those of us who believe in the 12 Steps of recovery feel strongly that this power can come from working through the steps. One gets power restored to their brains that can overcome the cravings and urges to use. Yes, it happens every day to milions of recovering people that their willpower to live can override the willpower to use. This ability is restored particularly through the process of Step Two whereby a person gets an infusion of spirituality necessary to have a meaningful life. When principles, morals, values and meaningfulness come back into a person's life, they become lovable, personable and well-intentioned. Their brains become whole again and their addiction is arrested so that it can no longer run and ruin the person's life.

That capacity means power can be restored and the power of the addiction can be rendered impotent. And, that is quite a miracle to watch everyday for which I am very grateful.

All the best, Roger W.