PREVIOUS: Alcoholism #2b

IMAGE ⬆️ : Pain directly linked to Emotional States 

SITE: “Heal suffering w/ Self-acceptance“ (+ Negative beliefs)

🌈 Poor Mental health plays an important role in all forms of substance abuse, which often overlap with psychiatric disorders, because addictive substances change the way the brain works, impacting a person’s mood, thoughts & actions. Psychological evaluation of a potential patient includes:

Personal history:  age when they first started using alcohol…., family history of substance use, & all traumatic experiences, Also – housing, financial & marital status, education & employment, physical & mental health (theirs & their family), & legal problems.

VIOLENCE & ADDICTION
The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment noted that more than 75% of people entering treatment admit to various acts of violence, although researches claim that “only a tiny fraction of all drinking events involve violence.”
The likelihood of an active drinker being violent seems to stem from how they usually deal with their anger when not drinking. Since alcohol lowers inhibitions, robbing a person of self-control which allows for risky behavior, so previously suppressed rage can be acted out when sufficiently drunk.

RESEARCH: The central nervous system (CNS) processes which integrate emotional behavior are altered in people at high risk for alcoholism, with 3 markers for identifying the risk:
1) Proportion: a characteristic balance of positive to negative emotions
2) Cortisol: emotion-related changes in this stress hormone
3) The Startle Eyeblink: a measure of emotion-related change in CNS activation

PERSONALITY TRAITS that underpin active addictions
🏴 NOTE: NO ONE has ALL of these! Look for several that fit your ‘favorite’ addict (or yourself ??), the ones that seem to really stand out, that are over-blown, that keep getting in the way of a success, happy life.

Alcoholism is called a 3-fold disease: Physical, Emotional & Spiritual (not religion) :
1. EMOTIONAL
• Angry. Volatile E-motions, explosive temper, often acts out in violent ways
• Co-dependent. Deeply effected by other people’s emotions, reactions,  difficulties…. & other social influences, mostly negative &/or toxic

• Defensive. Very guarded & protective of inner most thoughts & feelings
• Depressed. This can be physical /hereditary and/OR from decades of abandonment & abuse. Either way its’s long-term & debilitating

• Desperate. Feel like their would is falling apart. Don’t know what to do
• Disconnected. Unaware of what they’re feeling emotionally
• Distracted. In constant escape-mode. Use Alcohol/drugs, sex, social-media…. to numb painful life experiences, or fill up with “spirit”

•  Fearful / Terrified. Worry a lot. Anxious, agitated…. always expect only the worst
• Fearful of Failure and Success. Stay stuck (work, home….). Feel like they ‘can’t win for loosing’

• Guilty. Continual, overwhelming self-blame for real or imagine harm they did to someone, either by a damaging action, or by neglecting to do something
• Hopeless. Completely convinced there’s NO possibility for their life to get better (“learned helplessness”), they have no options, no one to help
• Hyper-sensitive. Take everything personally that happens to them or even around them, as if they’re the center of everyone else’s world

• Insensitive. Can’t sympathize with another’s hardship, or to empathize with someone’s emotional distress
• Joyless. Nothing is fun, relaxing, stress-less.
• Lonely. Feel alone, can’t ask for help because ‘no one cares’

• Paranoid. Assume everyone secretly (or blatantly) intends to hurt them. Can’t trust anyone. NO one’s safe
• Passive-aggressive. Can’t show anger directly, so puts on a smile, but withholds, refuses to participate….  or secretly, indirectly does harm
• Resentful – of oh-so many people… Carry a long list of grudges towards anyone who’s disappointed or hurt them in life

• Sad. Deep sorrow because of too many losses, often hidden from oneself, or unexpressed
• Self-Hating. Deep down inside, blame themself for everything that’s gone wrong or that hurts them.  Nothing is never ‘good enough’
• Shamed. Intensely ashamed of themself, their family, their circumstance, their inability to ‘fix’ a loved one…..

• Unforgiving. Unable / unwilling to release of all the bad things done to them, & the pain it caused. Can’t seem to cope with people, place, things – as they are
• Un-comforted. Nothing is soothing, pleasant, stress-free
• Uncomfortable in their skin. Don’t know ‘who I am”, or ‘how’ to sit, stand, walk… Restless, irritable, discontent. Life is a painful, unpleasant journey
• Unlovable – Unable to love themself or to receive love from others.

NEXT: 2. Psychological