About Addictions

        A true addiction (vs. "overdoing" something) is an uncontrolla-ble compulsion which provides temporary relief from significant inner pain - and increases it over time. Four types of addiction are:

• substances which reliably alter brain chemistry, including su-gar, fat, and carbohydrates ("comfort foods"). Some substan-ce addictions have genetic predispositions and/or create bio-logical cravings that amplify psychological needs 

• relationships (codependence) 

• excitement (e.g. rage, risk, sexual arousal and relief), and...

• activities like gambling, shopping, overwork, investing, wor-ship, cleaning, exercising, pornography, Web-surfing, etc...

        All true addictions have clearly identifiable traits, and reliably indicate a low-nurturance childhood and major psychological  wounds and unawareness 

        12-step "Anonymous" programs can arrest addictions (partial recovery), but do not identify and reduce false-self wounds, so ad-dicts must constantly guard against relapses. Full recovery requires the person to want to (a) free their true Self to lead their other sub-selves, and to (b) find more effective ways of avoiding and reducing inner pain. Self-study Lesson 1 provides an effective way to do that.

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