created: `=dateformat(this.file.ctime, "DDDD, HH:mm")` updated: `=dateformat(this.file.mtime, "DDDD, HH:mm")` tags: #technologicallove/concepts related notes: [[The Karmic contingencies system]], [[the nature of the good]], [[openness and curiosity]], [[Health and (dis)ease]] [[attachment and acceptance]] # essence [[Addiction]] is a form of [[disease]] that affects many [[being|beings]] of the [[Earth system|Earth]]. It manifests as a degenerating spiral caused ultimately by embodied [[fear]] and [[attachment]], which may be primarily cognitive, emotional, bodily, or otherwise embedded within a pattern of one's physical structure. Significant intermediate causal structure may be comprised of environment, circumstance, behavioral patterns and habits, biological predisposition, and health. # expansion While there are many subtleties and complexities, the primary forces in addiction seem to work like this: You are living a life where you are not getting what you need. More than likely you don't know how to get what you need, either because the process in your situation is prohibitively challenging, overwhelming, or otherwise infeasible, because the knowledge of how to get it is not prevalent in your community, or because you have not yet developed the skills (e.g. mindfulness, presence, [[openness and curiosity|curiosity, openness]]) required to notice or discover the nature of the need. If you're not getting what you need and you feel stuck and weighed down, you may seek relief. The available relief methods are likely to help in the short term by [[The Karmic contingencies system|incurring debt in the long term]]. So you will feel better for now, but you won't have solved anything. Then the situation and the feeling will come up again and you will will seek relief again. The relief will help, but slightly less than last time. This effect of tolerance to your method of escape—whether it is a drug or an activity or a behavior—will grow over time. But this is not the primary cause of addiction. The main effect emerges from the increased gap between the world you are living in (in your escape) and the world as it is. The escape will distract you from the problems in your life and deplete resources that could be helpful in solving the problem. Such resources span a wide range and include time, money, attention, energy, physical health, credibility, and more. As these resources drain and the situation remains unresolved, it will only deepen. This will require a stronger method of escape to sufficiently pull you away from the increasing [[suffering|pain]] of reality. These more powerful escapes tend to have additional costs and consequences, which will pull you further into the causal vortex of addiction. These declining circumstances can be viewed as karmic messages, which get louder and louder as you continue to ignore them, hopefully precipitating a persistent state of acceptance we often call "rock bottom". Many will reach rock bottom at some point when the world has finally smacked them hard enough. Then they can accept the disease and [[Holistic healing|work their way out of it]]. Many others never escape and the disease is spread to others around them and infects the structure of the [[Earth system|system itself]]. The cure for addiction is ultimately a combination of acceptance and healing. Accept the world as it is. Work to make things healthier, more easeful, and more harmonious. Of course this is a dramatic oversimplification. It does not describe the process of healing or how to interpret these concepts. It doesn't tell you how to find help, how to build accountability structures, how to identify the underlying unmet need, or what [[attachment]] and acceptance look like in your unique situation. But this page is not a practical guide to addiction, but simply a philosophical exploration of the concept in the context of this system of thought. Hopefully this will bring some clarity and understanding, but if your needs are more pragmatic or immediate, there are many resources on the internet and in your community that you can seek. Like most diseases, addiction does not originate in an individual or in a vice, but in the properties of the system. A system where people are incentivized to make money at the cost of the health of others and the world will give rise to a plethora of vices—shiny, tempting, and available at the push of a button. A world where selflessly helping others is costly and difficult is a world where there will never be quite enough help available. A world where those who are suffering are seen as weaker or less worthy of are care is a world that will only breed loneliness, disconnection, and disease. While we must always [[start by changing yourself|start by changing ourselves]], we can also work to envision and construct a world where the structures that feed the spirit of addiction and all the disease it causes are not only greatly weakened, but where opposing structures that promote and feed health and other [[the nature of the good|values]] are prevalent and powerful. This is the world envisioned in [[technological love]] and is hopefully one we can build together.