Over and over again I have been asked about the subject of addiction. Is it possible to ‘cure’ an addiction? I submit that it is. I know, I know. I am going to get beaten up mightily over a statement such as this. But let us look at a few facts.
It is first vital to understand that your thoughts create your reality. This is common sense.
If you can control your thoughts, you can control your personal reality. More common sense.
Now, humans are capable of only so much. They can communicate. They act. They feel. They believe. They decide.
It is a fact that your communication stems from your thought. Control your thought and you will control your communication.
Your feelings stem from your thought. Control your thought and you will control your feelings.
Your beliefs derive from your thought patterns. Control your thought and you will control health insurance your beliefs.
Your decisions are formed from your thoughts. Control your thought and you will control your decisions.
Your actions stem from your thoughts. Control your thoughts and you can control your actions.
In short, you can control everything you personally experience by rearranging your thoughts. This should be of paramount importance to you, if you wish to find peace, joy and happiness. For you CHOOSE everything you say, do, feel, believe and decide. You are responsible, at some level, for all of it. Notice that I said at some level.
This holds true in every respect. If you ‘feel’ bad, you have chosen to accept the thoughts that create this feeling. If you act poorly, you have chosen to accept the thoughts that allow this. Etc. Etc. You get the idea. But here is an even more important concept:
You are not necessarily in charge of this process at a conscious level! The process of choosing a thought does not have to be conscious. As a matter of fact, the conscious level is the much smaller part of your mind.
Everything that happens within the body is the result of a mind process. Now, you do not have to remember to breathe, do you? Yet you breathe without thinking about it. Why?
You do not have to remember to make your heart beat, do you? Yet your heart beats, does it not? Why? Your kidneys and liver function. You sweat.
This happens because the mind, at a level YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF, causes these processes to take place. This simply means there is a level of mind which functions without your knowledge. This is called the subconscious (below the threshold of awareness) level of mind.
We know this. Our senses are bombarded with literally thousands of bits of sight impressions, sound impressions, tastes, smells and physical sensations each and every minute. If we were to become consciously aware of all of these at once, we would most likely go mad! If you are sitting down while reading this, have you noticed the pressure on your health insurance backside? The taste in your mouth? The feeling in your hands? The sounds in the room?
No. These are filtered out so that you may pay attention to these written words. But who, or more appropriately what, decided what should be filtered? And why?
The subconscious decided. On its own. Based on past experience.
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If you are addicted to anything, you have chosen the thoughts that will allow this. But perhaps you did not do this CONSCIOUSLY. It could be that it was chosen outside of your sphere of awareness by your SUBCONSCIOUS mind.
The mind is totally responsible for every process in the body and every mental perception you hold. If you can accept this now, this will save you completely from any negative mental state, including addiction of any kind.
You believe you are at the mercy of your thoughts, for it appears as though you cannot control what seems to come to you. But you can. For, what often comes to you, is simply a choice made FOR you BY your subconscious mind. This process is not out of your control; it is simply out of your awareness. Your subconscious, the gatekeeper of your mind, chooses what shall be allowed to pass.
Controlling your experience can be accomplished quite easily, if you learn how the subconscious minds makes ITS decisions.
This brings us to the study of hedonics. The subconscious mind has sometimes been called the reptilian mind. This part of mind is concerned with but a few things:
-Survival
-Creating Pleasure
-Avoiding Pain
But here, for now, we are speaking specifically in regards to addiction. The following concepts hold true for any kind of addiction; alcohol, drugs, overeating, sex, gambling, whatever one might imagine.
This base part of mind loves pleasurable feelings. Seldom does one pick up a drink, a drug, a donut or a horse-racing form without the full expectation of gaining pleasure from the act! Think about it. Would you swallow that vile tasting, throat-burning concoction in the shot glass lest it bring you some form of pleasure? Would you choke on the smoke of a marijuana joint if you gained nothing from it save a smoky, smelly burning sensation? Would you eat a dozen donuts if they each tasted like sand?
No. Your base mind, the mind with a mind of its own, expects pleasure from these things. Now, CONSCIOUSLY, you may know these things will bring you great harm. You even decide not to participate in these activities anymore. But the SUBCONSCIOUS overrides your common sense, in the interest of the pleasure they bring, and then presents you with the dreaded – craving.
Now you are smack in the middle of a terrible war; a war with your own mind. You know you shouldn’t. But you want to. But you know you shouldn’t. But you want to.
Back and forth, back and forth you go. Fighting but yourself. The sad part? Your subconscious will often win. And you will lose.
This is because the subconscious is relentless. It will not give it up. It MUST have the object of the craving. And, in many cases, it is quite simply stronger than the part of you that knows better.
This is quite simple. Psychology 101. Nothing new here.
From this point on, I will speak specifically to substance abuse. I will lump alcohol, any type of drug, or any type of physical substance under the heading of ‘drug‘. A drug is a drug, as they say.
Anyone can be detoxed from any drug. This is a medical process whereby the offending drug is removed from the body of the addicted person. It is a long and often risky MEDICAL procedure that, once accomplished, should be the final step. But for most, it is but the first step. For now, the fight within the mind begins.
The subconscious mind now begins to scream its displeasure. Its favorite toy has been taken away! And so, it literally goes berserk. Like a child denied, it goes on the attack. This is unsettling to some. To others, it can be agonizing.
There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of reasons why any particular mind gets addicted to anything. Fear. Guilt. The need to hide. Apathy. Boredom. The need for attention. Whatever. The reason a mind becomes addicted is as varied as the number of people addicted. But the reason WHY the mind became addicted in the first place is not important in this particular discussion. What is important is to understand how devious the base mind can be in regards to getting what IT wants, not what YOU necessarily want.
Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day it reminds us. It whispers to us. health insurance It is unceasing in its attempts to ensnare us. It is relentless in its pursuit of the desired object. And we must now pay the price. We are at the mercy of the thing. It appears to stalk us, jumping out with the desire to use when we least want to experience the desire to use.
Now here is the question: What if we could simply shut off the voice of the base mind? Turn it off like we turn off our televisions or computers? Do away with this monster once and for all? What might happen then?
Quite simply, the struggle would be gone. We would be at peace and would simply be in a recovered state. All of it behind us. No war. No resistance. No fight.
Assuming that one had been medically or otherwise detoxed, without the voice of the baser part of mind, we would, in fact, be completely cured, would we not? Without the goading and prompting of this voice, we would have no desire for the return to the drug whatsoever. The desire would be gone.
This can in fact be accomplished. And it is quite easy, once learned. This will be the subject of Part Two of this article. Author: Don McCauley
