Moving Deeper into the Complexity of AddictionsII
As an experienced psychiatrist, Gerald May brings an abundance of wisdom in his teachings about addictions. His main concern is spiritual. He uses science with considerable dexterity in pursing his goal of enlightenment. One of his major contributions to both science and spirituality is that all addictions, large and small, deprive the individual of freedom and fill the space in the heart that is meant for God.It is a big leap for many to realize that a favorite TV show, impatience in a grocery line or a need to get recognized for your work have anything to do with one’s spiritual life. May is emphatic that all addictions of whatever size, intensity or duration are of significance in the quest for God.
Some deeper considerations about addictions will be helpful in displaying the connection of addictions to our spiritual life. While defining addiction as any compulsive, habitual behavior that limits freedom and human desire, May stresses it is the action that is truly important in addiction. Desire for alcohol does not define an alcoholic. Regular over-indulgence in drinking does.
Here are five important characteristics of any addiction:
- Tolerance: We always want more of the product of the addictive behavior. In the end, whatever is the goal of the addiction, it becomes consistently more difficult to achieve. This exposes a deeper but unsatisfied hunger. This is a truly ugly dimension of addiction.
- Withdrawal symptoms: There are two. They are stress reaction and backlash reaction. In the stress reaction, the body reacts to the loss of addictive behavior in varying degrees of intensity. In the backlash, the person feels the opposite of the desired goal of the addiction.
- Self-deception: The mind is fighting against itself to avoid loss of its “fix.” It creates “mind games” to distort and deceive anything that might deprive it of it of satisfaction. The mind loathes the possibility of change built-in with withdrawal. It is ingenious in creating excuses to maintain full support for the addiction.
- Loss of willpower: A fundamental deception or “mind trick” of addiction is focusing attention on willpower. The intention to stop it by saying, “I can handle it” is the sure path to preserving the addiction. The movement away from willpower to surrender and openness to grace is one of the great insights of May’s teachings.
- Distortion of attention: Addiction absorbs our attention to distract our mind and heart from love. Attention and love are intimate partners. This is at the heart of the addiction’s destructive powers. It keeps us from the path of love for others and especially for God.
Teresa of Avila’s Insight About Addiction
Teresa of Avila’s fundamental insight about humility is relevant to the issue of addiction. Her long struggle to seek God led her to a self-knowledge and honesty. To her surprise, it was her weakness that led her to accept her essential poverty opening the way to God. This struggle of almost two decades pointed her to the simple overwhelming truth: God is God, and I am the creature. God, however, is a loving and merciful God and I am a sinful but forgiven and loved creature. I live in a sea of God’s overwhelming mercy.Teresa’s door into this fundamental truth was a life of prayer and sacrifice leading to constant search for God’s will and true self-knowledge. She moved beyond the words to the reality of the beautiful statement: Let go and let God! It led her to humility that recognizes God as loving and forgiving. We are the recipients of that same divine love and mercy. In the context of this life-defining message of Teresa, the solution to addictive behavior is clear. We accept our reality that makes the pursuit of God’s will so difficult for us. Facing our weakness, we surrender to God’s loving will. In this struggle, we eventually are set free not by our willpower but by our openness to God’s loving mercy and saving grace.
I tried to stop drinking hundreds of times. Then God spoke one day in the form of a magazine that had a test to determine if one is an alcoholic. I failed miserably. The elephant in the room, so visible to others for so long, suddenly had me backed up against the wall. I was in shock. It led to a journey of self-knowledge and prayer that included the special support of my community. My white-knuckled determination to stop drinking never worked. I did, however, stop drinking by the grace of God.
I am now free to struggle in humility with the massive number of other addictions that continue to suck away my freedom. The grace is in the struggle!
