Addiction Is Not Just Compulsion

What Addiction Means On Paper

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So, what is addiction? Well, if you ask the American Society of Addiction Medicine, they're going to tell you addiction involves complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, environment, and life experiences. It is characterized by an inability to stop using a substance or engaging in a behavior, even when it causes physical, mental, or social harm. Now, I don't think anyone would argue with that. It's a definition, but I do think it's incomplete. But who am I to say? Well, I'll tell you who I am. My name is Kat York. I'm not only the host of Recovery Callus Podcast, which you're kindly listening to. But here's some qualifying uh information for me. Grew up in an alcoholic home. I have six years of continuous sobriety. Took me about 10, 11 years to get there. Drank heavily for 20 years. At my highest, I was drinking a half a gallon of uh vodka a day, Poland Spring, only the finest. And living off of ramen. I almost lost everything. I did lose everything. I'm solely gaining it all back. And I want to

My Drinking Story And Sobriety

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talk today about addiction and the definition of it because it bothers me. It's very incomplete. Now, this is only my take on it. You're free to believe obviously what you want about addiction. And I welcome any comments or questions that you have. I'm very easy to find. Link is in the show notes. To me, this definition just doesn't fit what I think addiction is. It sounds very cold. You know, when I look at that, it says inability to stop using. Yet it cites factors like genetics, environment, and life experiences. So to me, that doesn't mean an inability to stop. It means you don't know how to stop. And it means not only do you not know how to stop, but something is hurting you deeply that is causing you to not stop. And they said um engaging in a behavior even when it causes physical, mental, or social harm. What about spiritual harm? It's not causing you spiritual harm. Because to me, part of what the issue is with addiction is it's a spiritual issue. You know, we try to run the show. Now don't get it twisted. I don't I don't fall into the category of people who believe that addiction is is a disease. I do not think it's a disease. I don't fall into that brain disease category. I I don't believe it. Nor do I believe that I'm powerless over it. Because I think when you make yourself powerless over something, you make yourself a victim. And that's a very slippery slope. Because the truth is, I was never a victim when it came to addiction. I made choices that led me to lose damn near everything I had because I had unhealed trauma, because of the environment I grew up in, and because my brain was wired from day one to live in fight or flight. I had a completely dysregulated nervous system. And to be honest, most days I still do. The only difference now is I take steps to help manage that. You know, I have a counselor,

Why The Usual Definitions Feel Cold

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I have a psychiatrist, I take medication, I don't drink, I exercise as much as I can. You know, I did a I audited my circle of people. And I live a much different life than I did, you know, 10, 12, 15 years ago. But when I look at these definitions of addiction, you know, here's another one. Uh addiction is a chronic, treatable medical disease involving compulsive substance use or behavior that continues despite harmful consequences. It's not that we do not know it's harmful. We are very well aware. When we start losing things around us, relationships, jobs, money, apartments, houses, our freedom, custody. Thankfully that was never the case for me, but it is for a lot of people. We start losing our license, start losing those around us, their trust in us, employers can't employ us. It's I don't believe it's compulsive. I believe it is a choice. And I believe a lot of people, including myself who struggle with addiction, it's not a choice that they like to make. It's just a choice that eases the pain. Because the truth is you're not brought to a substance that you know can kill you and eventually most likely will, because you're compulsive, you're in pain. You went through something that you can't talk about, don't know how to process, and you may feel you're completely out of options in dealing with it. Is that the case? No. But I think addiction is far more complex than just these definitions that are giving us. I believe these definitions are incomplete. I mean, look at the signs and symptoms: loss of control or inability to stop the behavior, uh, increased tolerance, needing more to get the same effect, neglecting responsibilities, relationships, or health, withdrawal symptoms, anxiety, irritability, or nausea with stopping. Yeah, those are signs and symptoms. But they're not signs and symptoms that really tell you where to actually go. Because this is talking about behavior, this is talking about a physical

Choice Trauma And Powerlessness Debate

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tolerance, this is talking about the consequences of drinking, right? You're neglecting your responsibilities, your relationships, your health, your tolerance is increasing, you're having withdrawal symptoms, you need it more, you need it more frequently, daytime, nighttime, afternoon. You can't be without it. So, and then you also don't have a loss of control, or even the inability to stop. Yes, the brain is a factor in there, and it when you take these substances, it does set off a chain of events in your brain and in your body. I do believe that, but the initial drink, the initial drug is on you. It was on me. I'll never blame anyone for my drinking or my behavior while I did it or what I lost. That's completely on me. Um, I have to own that every day and deal with the ramifications of that every single day. And I do. And it's and it's not pleasant. But I think it comes down to a lot more than just brain chemistry. I mean, us as addicts, alcoholics, whatever you want to call yourself, we carry a lot with us. Now, I don't know, I don't have a magical definition that sums up everything. But these two feel very cold to me. You know? And when you're dealing with someone who's deep in their addiction, I feel you need something a little more genuine, a little more warm, a little with a little more humanity. I mean, the typical models just aren't working like they used to. You know, it says uh treatment options, recovery programs, you know, AA, NA, detox, rehab, all that. And those things have their place, but I would ask you to look at the statistics of the success rate of those. Even AA has a high failure rate. I think there's some work that program needs. That's my personal opinion.

Why Treatment Models Often Fall Short

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Don't come at me or do. I'm not bashing it. I just, there's things about the program itself that I think are losing a lot of people. You know, I think the sponsors are are, I think sometimes that's a tricky situation. I think there becomes an interesting power dynamic sometimes. Um power differential, I should say. So back to my original conversation, what is addiction? It's a lot more complicated than these definitions. You know, I mean, books and podcasts and talk shows, and we all try to find the answer. The thing is there's there is no one answer. I mean, we have to deal with our shit, which a lot of us don't like to do. We have just to imagine. We have to deal with the comfort of it. But to just talk it up to genetic environments, experiences, and brain circuits. I feel we're missing something different. Because you start looking at people just with those things, I think you're missing the person. Cause to me it was never compulsive. Like I I made a choice to drink. Drugs weren't really a part of my story, except for weed a little bit here and there. But you know, alcohol was my love. It was so easily accessible. And it still is. I mean, even where I live in like a two-mile radius, there's like five or six fucking liquor stores. It's all around. And I think more than ever, people are in a lot of pain. And to me, I think that's I think what drives people to drink and to use is pain. You can say it's anger, you can say it's your job, your wife, your kids, financial. But the truth is you're in pain and you don't know how to deal with it and you're ill-equipped at life. I I can say that because I am often ill-equipped at life. I don't often know how to handle the things that come my way. Right? I wasn't taught that. I grew up in a very dysfunctional, toxic environment. I know a buzzword toxic, but it was. And now trying to reteach

Pain Spiritual Wounds And The Nervous System

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myself how to live when I'm 43 years old, that's not an easy thing to do. But I know if I go back to a drink, you know, I don't stand a chance in hell of coming back. So the definition of addiction to me falls flat. A lot like the treatments fall flat. I mean, rehab has a very low success rate. You know, detoxes do their job. But again, we're not we're not getting to what addiction is. It's definitely spiritual. It's definitely about your nervous system. There is brain chemistry involved. Obviously, it involves your nervous system. There are patterns we have to heal, things we need to change in our life, responsibility we need to take. And while there are methods that help you with that, I I don't think we've really nailed down the definition of what addiction is. And until we do, I don't think we're really gonna have all the answers on how to help it. Because you're never gonna fix it. I'm always going to be one step away from the drink. I mean, when my father died, I was very close to it. You know, that was heavy. Did I? No. Yeah, I want to, absolutely. So I think we need to update these definitions of addiction. Well, um, and i I don't think it just involves drugs, alcohol, nicotine, or prescription drugs. I think there's shopping, sex, gambling, even relationships. You can get addicted to relationships. You know, I talked to a hypnotherapist on my show,

Addiction Beyond Substances And Patterns

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David Bennett. Check him out on TikTok, he's wonderful. Um, people can get addicted to the patterns. It's comfortable. Our brain likes it, our body likes it, our nervous system likes it. Even if it's completely and violently unhealthy for us, we can't help but go back to it. Because it's what our system knows, and I think goes back to the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don't, right? You go where your comfort is, even if it's completely unhealthy, because your brain is comfortable with it, your body is comfortable with it, and we don't have to change that way. So I'm curious to know what your definition of addiction is, how you define it. I would love to hear um some of your thoughts on this. Uh, my email is callercatpodcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think addiction is. Links in the bio if you want to leave me a voicemail on my webpage. Um, but yeah, I really want to hear how those who struggle with addiction, or even those who don't, maybe you're

Your Definition And How To Reach Me

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a counselor or a psychiatrist, um, and you have thoughts on what addiction actually is and how this definition should be updated, let me know. I want to have a conversation. I want to open up this dialogue. Um, and if you think I'm wrong, you're free to do that. But I think we need to talk about it more because I think these definitions just are not cutting in. And if you believe this episode could help somebody, share it. And if you don't, that's cool too. Either way, I'm Kat York from Recovery Callus Podcast. And I thank you for listening today, and we'll catch you next time.