Life addiction

1. The previous image suggests that there are two opposite roads in life: One towards addiction, and another one towards life. But what if life itself is the ultimate addiction?

2. Commonly, addiction refers to the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity. Dependency, craving, habit, weakness, compulsion, fixation, enslavement are synonyms. [1]

3. The definition seems to be self-referring. Addiction is defined as the condition of being addicted to something. But what is the root of addiction? Is it a substance or situation which we become addicted to, or is it the necessity that we always have to be accustomed to or occupied with something?

4. The synonyms provide some clues (dependency, habit, compulsion, enslavement). We may say that there are three kinds of addiction: biological, psychological, and social. Smoke and alcohol for example are biological addictive substances. Dependency on somebody else on a personal level is a form of psychological addiction, while slavery or even labor is a kind of social dependency.

5. But what about the food we eat or the water we drink? Are we addicted to food and water, since we are dependent on them? A distinction which can be made is between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ substances. While for example we can drink as much water as we like, we cannot drink alcohol in unlimited quantities. The same is also true in personal affairs or social relationships. We can neither have sex nor work all day.

6. But how about smoking or drinking alcohol, or doing anything we want, in relatively small amounts? Is the saying “every measure is best” the answer to the problem of addiction? Even doing everything with measure, we can still be addicted to taking measure of everything we do in our lives. Thus measure itself can become a habit of people who have the compulsion of calculating everything they do.

7. In earlier times abstinence was supposed to be the treatment of any kind of addiction. Hermits used to stay away from any earthly pleasure. This way they tried to get rid of the tyranny of the demands of the body. But what about the spiritual suffering of being alone? By abstaining from any little pleasure of life don’t we end up losing the meaning of life?

8. In modern society social media can become addictive activities. The contemporary hermits are people watching TV, surfing on the internet or being occupied all the time with their smartphones. But should we withdraw ourselves from modern society in order to treat any tech addition? Should we abolish technology altogether, or would we rather learn how to use technology properly?

9. In addition to the addictions referring to ourselves, there are also social addictions referring to the relationship we have with other people, not only concerning sex but also labor. Isn’t it for example trying to be pleasant to others a form of addiction? On the other hand, should one consider oneself happy and healthy if one works like a slave, even if one is well paid?

10. Returning to the meaning of addiction in relation to life itself, there are many substances and many ways one can be addicted, even if addiction refers sometimes to the most abstract notions.

11. So let’s forget everything for a moment. Let’s try to empty and rest ourselves without any need or worry. Let’s get rid not only of all the things we are attached to but also of our own thought, which seems to come in mind as an involuntary and compulsive urge- before we even realize what we are thinking about.

12. Faced now with absolute emptiness, the same dark and empty space becomes the undifferentiated background which our whole existence leans on. Gradually we discover anew the need to fill ourselves and our immediate environment with the most pleasurable ideas and objects.

13. Those things which fill up our emptiness and give us pleasure are the elements of addiction. In fact all things which we recognize as solid and irreplaceable objects of reality are intangible and ambiguous images in our mind, while their purpose or importance is determined by some thought process which we consider more or less obvious. How difficult would it be to just get rid of what displeasures us most by simply changing our state of mind?

14. It seems therefore that addiction is fundamentally a state or condition which gives us some purpose or meaning. But the secret nature of addiction itself is unconscious- thus meaningless. For example we can be obsessed with the idea of death. Such an obsession or phobia preoccupies our life, so that we may devote our life to finding the secret of immortality, or to making the biggest discovery in science ever been made.

15. But perhaps, beyond the instinct of death, the instinct of life may cause the strongest addiction of all. While we usually forget that we will eventually die, our own self- preservation can become the worst addiction. Being attached to life too much, life becomes an object of worship, a fetish, which we are unwilling to give over when the time comes, withholding thus the progress of life.

16. Should we finally be so much preoccupied with the meaning and purpose of life? Are success and fame, as the ultimate goals, the worst addictions after all, creating all the feelings of incompetency, finally driving us to egopathy and self-destruction- even if we ironically think that we have been so successful?

[1]: [https://www.google.gr/search?q=addiction+definition]

11/18/2018

Image: [https://drugabuse.com/library/treatment-programs/]